



^. IBIl hJKg: 


•-* 



FT MEADE 
GenCo 1 1 


^Le^ndmeMa • 

W^. Tables • 
Stories /^Bedtime 

By Abbie PhillipsWevlker 





Class _ TZS 

Book — 




Gopight'N 0 . 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 






SANDMAN TALES 


Books by 

ABBIE PHILLIPS WALKER 


TOLD BY THE SANDMAN. Illustrated 

SANDMAN TALES. Illustrated 

THE SANDMAN’S HOUR. Illustrated 


HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK 


• • Tories • • 

Stories for Bedtime 



ByAbbie Phillips Wadkei^** 

Iuustrated by Rhoda. C. Cha.se* • 
Harper (3 Brothers, Publishers 



/ 



49 



MAY 22 1917 


Sandman’s Tales 

Copyright, 1917, by Harper & Brothers 
Printed in the United States of America 
Published May, 1917 

E-R 


©CI.A467118 

"1^0 l \ 

t 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

How the Fairies Borrowed the Moon .... 3 

The Green-and-red Rooster 8 

How the Mice Caught Pussy 12 

The Green Cat 17 

The Theft of the Fairies’ Wands 25 

Helen’s Great-grandmother 29 

The Too-ambitious Spider 35 

The Box of Flames 39 

The Queen of the Sea 44 

The Singing Ring ; 49 

Jack Frost's Cards 53 

The Goblins’ Feast 58 

The Marriage of the Roses 63 

Billy Bull’s Lesson 66 

The Story of the Silver Box 71 

The Disgraced Sugar-bowl 75 

The King of the Barnyard 79 

The Milk-white Horse 83 

The Talking Animals 87 

How the Goblins Were Out-tricked 93 

Gray Hen’s Strategy 98 

The Jumping Jack 102 

The Barn Dance 106 

The Lost Star in 

% 





SANDMAN TALES 












HOW THE FAIRIES BORROWED THE MOON 

I DON’T suppose that everybody knows why it 
is that sometimes when you look up at the sky 
at night you see only a part of the moon and perhaps 
nobody would ever have known if the Goblins had 
not spied on the Fairies’ festival one night and found 
out and told it. The Fairies had for a long time held 
festivals in the spring and summer and in the fall, 
but they had never had a winter festival, although 
one would have thought that the white snow would 
have made an especially pretty setting for one of 
their dances. But one night at a gathering of the 
Fairies it was proposed to hold a winter festival, and 
after it had been talked over a little every Fairy there 
was enthusiastically planning what to do. Finally 
one of the Fairies said: 

“I think it would be nicest to have the festival 


SANDMAN TALES 


4 

on the lake and then we will have the smooth ice 
to dance on.” 

“And,” said another Fairy, “we can build a fire 
over on the side of the lake so that we can warm 
ourselves if we get cold.” 

“And,” said another, “those who do not wish to 
dance can skate by tying their wands on the bottom 
of their shoes.” 

The Gnomes said they would look after the polish- 
ing of the ice by going to Jack Frost and getting him 
to help them, and they planned to ask North Wind 
to blow and send some clean white snow, and every 
Fairy was to have her dress trimmed with fur and each 
was to wear a little bonnet made of swan’s down 
and tied with a red ribbon. Altogether the festival 
was planned to be one of the most elaborate the 
Fairies ever had given. But just as the meeting was 
breaking up one of the Fairies said: 

1 ‘ What are we going to do for light ? In the summer 
we have always had the fireflies to help us, but now 
they are all fast asleep and we cannot wake them 
up, and, anyway, their lights are all out at this time 
of the year.” 

“Why, we have the moon,” said one of the 
Fairies. 

“Yes,” said another; “but, while the moon is 
bright enough for us on ordinary nights, we certainly 
need more light than she will give for so great a festi- 
val as we are going to have.” 


HOW THE FAIRIES BORROWED THE MOON 5 

“That’s so,” said the first Fairy, “but I do not see 
how we can get anything brighter.” 

“The moon would be all right if only it was nearer, 
so that its light would shine better,” said another 
Fairy, and after thinking a minute, she said, “I won- 
der if we could not borrow the moon?” 

“Borrow the moon?” cried half a dozen Fairies in 
chorus. “Why, what would people think?” 

“Well,” said the Fairy, “if we couldn’t borrow the 
whole of it, perhaps we could borrow a piece of it, 
and then if we left the rest of it to shine in the sky 
perhaps the people wouldn’t notice it.” 

“That’s not such a bad idea,” said the Queen of 
the Fairies, “and I will appoint a committee to try 
and arrange it.” 

So she named three of the Fairies to act as a com- 
mittee to borrow the moon. The day before the 
festival was to take place the three Fairies all got 
astride of a broomstick which a witch loaned them 
and sailed away up into the sky, and when the 
man in the moon saw them coming toward him he 
was very much surprised, and was more surprised 
when he heard the curious request that they had to 
make. 

“Will I lend you the moon?” he said. “Why, what 
a strange thing to ask me! What do you think all 
the people down on the earth would say if they found 
out that I had done such an unheard-of thing? They 
might even make me move out of the moon and go 


6 


SANDMAN TALES 


somewhere else, and I have lived here so long that I 
would never be happy anywhere else.” 

“But,” said the Fairies, “if we do not have some 
light our festival will be a failure, and this is the first 
winter festival we have ever had, and Jack Frost has 
been just splendid in helping us and we think you 
might help, too. If you won’t loan us the whole of 
the moon, couldn’t you loan a part of it? We will be 
sure to bring it back just as good as it was when we 
took it?” 

“ How big a piece would you want?” asked the man. 

“Just as big as you can spare,” said the Fairies. 

“Well,” he said, after thinking a minute, “you 
have come a long way and I would like to help you 
and I certainly want your festival to be a success, so I 
am going to let you take a piece off the edge, but so 
as to be sure that you return it I am going to make 
one of your Fairies stay here all the time the piece is 
gone, and when it is returned the Fairy can go home.” 

So the Fairies drew lots as to which one should stay 
and the man took a big saw and sawed off a piece of 
the moon right near the edge where the people would 
be least likely to notice it was gone, and the two 
Fairies took' it with them on the broomstick back to 
the earth. And such a festival as the first winter 
festival was! Everybody voted it the best they had 
ever had and all agreed that the piece of the moon 
which they borrowed gave the finest light. After the 
festival was over the two Fairies took it back to the 


HOW THE FAIRIES BORROWED THE MOON 7 


sky and returned with their sister who had stayed 
there while they were away. The man in the moon 
was so pleased with the visit of the Fairies that he 
told them that they could borrow a part of the moon 
any time they liked, and so when you look up in the 
sky and see only a part of the moon there, why, per- 
haps the Fairies are holding another festival and have 
borrowed another piece of the moon. 





THE GREEN-AND-RED ROOSTER 

F ARMER JONES wanted a weather-vane, and 
when a peddler came along he bought a green- 
and-red tin rooster and put it on the shed where he 
kept his hay. 

One morning Miss Henny Penny was scratching 
around for worms when she happened to look up at 
the top of the shed. She dropped the big worm she 
had found and Speckled Hen picked it up and ran, 
but Henny Penny did not notice her, for she was 
standing with mouth wide open, staring at the green- 
and-red rooster on the top of the shed. 

“Isn’t he handsome!” she said, and she clucked 
and scratched, but the rooster on the shed did not 
lower his lofty head. 

Henny Penny was a trim-looking little brown hen, 
around whose neck were a few white feathers which 
looked like a linen collar. She might have been 
called a tailor-made hen, so prim did she look. 


THE GREEN-AND-RED ROOSTER 


9 


Henny Penny walked up and down in front of the 
shed, and every now and then she cast a sly glance 
at the green-and-red rooster. He swung round a 
little, but never a glance did he give her. Henny 
Penny flew up to the fence and flapped her wings, 
then she walked up and down. She thought he 
surely would notice her there and crow, if nothing 
more. 

“Oh dear,” she sighed, “if only he would crow! I 
am sure he has a lovely voice.” Still the rooster did 
not notice her. 

“The wood-pile is higher,” she thought. “I’ll try 
that.” So she flew to the top of the highest pile of 
wood. She walked about and flapped her wings, but 
the green-and-red rooster did not lower his gaze. 

“He has the most beautiful comb I ever saw,” 
said Henny Penny, more anxious than ever to attract 
his attention. A thunderstorm came up, and Henny 
Penny ran under a bush, but she made a peephole 
through which she could watch her sweetheart. 

“He will fly down now,” thought Henny Penny. 
The thunder rolled arid the lightning flashed around 
him, but aside from moving back and forth he did 
not stir from the end of the shed. “Oh, isn’t 
he brave!” thought Henny Penny, and when the 
shower was over she looked at him again. “How 
lovely his feathers look after the rain!” she said. “So 
smooth, and how they shine; any other rooster would 
look ruffled,” and then she walked into the shed. 




IO 


SANDMAN TALES 


“Just to think/’ she sighed, looking at the roof, 
“he is just beyond those rafters.’’ 

Suddenly she flew up to a shelf on the side of the 
shed, from there she flew to the hay-loft, and after 
resting awhile up she flew to the rafters. She sat 
there looking at the window that was broken, just 
above her head. If she could get out of that she could 
reach her idol. She spread her wings, and, swish! she 
was out on the roof. 

Henny Penny held her head down and scratched 
the roof with her toes, then she gave a sidelong glance 
at her idol, but he held his head high. She grew 
bolder and walked to the end of the roof; but she 
stepped back, her wings half spread, and her eyes 
looked as though they would pop out of her little 
head. “What!’’ she screamed. “My idol is tin, not 
only his feet, but all of his beautiful green-and-red 
feathers are tin.’’ 

Poor Henny Penny, she did not stop to go back 
the way she came; she went to the edge of the roof, 
spread her wings, and swish ! thump ! she was on the 
ground again. All the hens and roosters rushed to 
where she landed, their necks outstretched and making 
a great deal of noise; the pigs squealed and the dog 
barked. 

Henny Penny jumped up and shook her feathers. 
“My goodness!’’ said the old gray hen, “what ever 
were you doing on the top of the shed? Do you want 
to break your legs?” 


THE GREEN-AND-RED ROOSTER 


ii 


“I wanted to see the view from there,” said Henny 
Penny, turning her head to hide her blushes. 

“I think she went up to visit the weather-cock,” 
said the white rooster, who more than once had tried 
to be friends with Henny Penny. “You’d better 
be satisfied with us live roosters.” he continued, “and 
not fly so high.” 

Henny Penny walked away with her head held very 
high, but her heart was sad. “Anyway,” she said 
to herself, “he is handsome, and if he were alive he, 
very likely, would love me.” 




HOW THE MICE CAUGHT PUSSY 

“TT is very queer to me,” said Gray Mouse to his 
1 brother Whiskers, “that Pussy lets us run all 
around this pantry and never so much as makes a 
try at catching us.” , 

“I suppose she thinks there are traps enough 
around here to do that,” said Whiskers. “There is 
one on the shelf, and one on the floor back of a barrel, 
and one in the closet under the shelf. But of course 
we do not mind those; we have seen too many to be 
caught by a mere trap.” 

“Yes, that is the very thing that makes me think 
it is queer that Pussy does not do her duty and try 
to catch us,” replied Gray Mouse. 

“I am going to watch,” he continued, “and find 
out, if I can, why she lets us run around here. Here 
she comes now. Run behind that dish; I’ll get into 
this basket of eggs. Now keep your eyes open.” 

Pussy walked into the pantry with slow steps, 


HOW THE MICE CAUGHT PUSSY 


13 


sniffed the air and looked about; then she rubbed 
against some paper bags on the floor, and one mouse 
who was behind a box ran into his hole; but Pussy 
pretended not to notice him. 

She walked over to the shelf where a bowl of cream 
sat, and jumped up; then she waited a minute as if 
listening, but no one came, and Pussy put her head 
into the bowl and did not remove it until half of the 
cream was gone. Then she gently tipped over the 
bowl and the rest of the cream ran over the shelf. 

Pussy then helped herself to a piece of meat that 
was on a plate and jumped down. 

Whiskers came out from his hiding-place when she 
was gone and ran over to the basket of eggs, where 
Gray Mouse was hiding. 

“She ate the cream and took a piece of meat; we 
have seen her do that before,” he said. 

“Go back and keep quiet,” replied his brother. “I 
think we shall learn her secret if we wait long enough.” 

Gray Mouse had just time to hide as the door 
opened just then, and the maid came in. 

“Goodness me!” she exclaimed as she saw the over- 
turned bowl, “those mice are so thick about here that 
they tip over things as well as eat everything in sight; 
they have even carried off that piece of meat left 
from breakfast. I’ll have to get some more traps. 
Poor Puss can’t catch all of them.” 

“What did I tell you?” said Whiskers when the 
maid had gone; “that sly Puss lets us run about so we 


14 


SANDMAN TALES 


will be blamed for everything that is eaten and all 
that happens in this pantry, while all the time she 
is getting all the cream she wants, and other things, 
too. 

“Now they will put a new lot of traps in here and 
no knowing what terrible death awaits us. I wish 
we could do something to pay her back/’ 

“I do not see that we are any worse off than if 
she were trying to catch us all the time,” said Gray 
Mpuse. “It is either Pussy or new traps.” 

“Yes, that is true,” replied Whiskers, “but we 
know about the old traps and can keep away from 
them, and all we have to do with Puss is not to run 
about when she is in the house. 

“If she did not eat the cream and other things for 
which we have no taste at all the little we eat would 
never be noticed. As it is, she is playing it on us, and 
she gets all she wants to eat at our expense.” 

One warm day not long after this Pussy came into 
the pantry and looked about. A bowl of warm milk 
had been put by the window a few minutes before, 
and near it was a dish of soup. 

Pussy jumped up and helped herself, and by the 
time she had finished the soup she was sleepy, so 
without going out of the pantry she stretched herself 
out on the floor and soon was fast asleep. 

Gray Mouse and Whiskers were running about a 
few minutes after and suddenly came upon the sleep- 
ing Pussy. 


HOW THE MICE CAUGHT PUSSY 


i5 


“Now is our chance,” whispered Whiskers to Gray 
Mouse; “see that trap right beside her tail?” 

“Yes; I see the trap, but what can we do to her 
with a trap she could not get her paw in, let alone 
her head?” 

“We do not need her head, foolish fellow,” said 
Whiskers; “all we need is her tail.” 

Gray Mouse watched his brother, not having the 
least notion of what he intended to do to the sleeping 
Puss. 

“O-o!” he spoke, as he saw Whiskers go up to Puss 
and reach for the end of her tail. 

This frightened Whiskers so that he ran behind a 
barrel until he was sure Pussy did not awaken. 

“If you can’t keep quiet you better go home,” he 
said, in an angry whisper. Gray Mouse did not an- 
swer his brother, but he kept at a safe distance from 
Pussy and watched Whiskers. 

This time Whiskers took the end of Pussy’s tail 
and poked it into the trap. 

It was all done in a second, snap went the trap. 
Whiskers ran and Pussy jumped. And Pussy began 
to meow as well as jump, for fast on the end of her 
tail she carried the trap. 

Whiskers and Gray Mouse rolled over with laughter 
to see Pussy try to rid herself of the trap, but it was 
of no use, and out she went into the kitchen, the trap 
banging after her as she went. 

How she was freed from the trap Whiskers and his 


i6 


SANDMAN TALES 


brother never knew, but they did know that Pussy 
was very careful not to swing her tail about as she 
walked for the next few days. And they heard the 
maid say to her, “If you had done your duty, Mis- 
tress Puss, instead of stealing the cream, you would 
not have gone to sleep in the pantry and been caught 
in the trap. Serves you right.” 



THE GREEN CAT 


O LD WITCH BETTO stood in the door of her 
cave on top of a high mountain; her lean, long 
arms, with hands like claws, were stretched before 
her, and the wind blew wisps of her gray hair, making 
them look like so many horns around her wicked face. 

Old Witch Betto was very angry. The people of 
the village were giving a f£te to which she had not 
been invited. 

But who would have thought of inviting old Betto 
to anything? Her appearance in the village was 
always an ill omen. Some one lost a cow or the 
water in the wells turned green and unfit to drink, 
or, worse still, the children upon whom she cast her 
evil eye became deformed. 

But old Witch Betto did not think of all this, and 
in her cave on the top of the mountain she was calling 
down the rain and spoiling their f£te. Such rain had 


i8 


SANDMAN TALES 


never been seen before. The valley was like a river, 
and all the pretty decorations which had been put 
up for the fete were spoiled, and the young people 
were bemoaning their lost pleasures. 

Hans and Gretchen were to be married during the 
fete, and Gretchen’s pretty eyes were red with weep- 
ing, for the new cap and embroidered petticoat 
would be spoiled if she wore them, and to be married 
in one’s old clothes was something people would never 
forget. 

And so Hans was unhappy because his pretty 
Gretchen would not smile. “Dry your eyes, lieb- 
schen,” he said, as he kissed her good night; “I’ll 
make the sun shine to-morrow if I have to climb to 
the top of the mountain and pull his old head out of 
the clouds.” 

Hans had not the least notion of doing it, but he 
could not leave his pretty sweetheart without some 
word of comfort. 

He had not walked far before he heard something 
splashing along beside him. . 

“Some poor dog,” thought Hans, “is trying to 
find his way home.” And he swung his lantern 
around, but instead of a dog he saw a huge frog. 

“You are having wet weather,” said the frog. 

Hans was too surprised to reply, and the frog 
spoke again. 

“Would you like to know how to stop this rain?” 
he asked. 


THE GREEN CAT 


19 


By this time Hans had recovered from his surprise. 

“Yes,” he replied. “How can it be done?” 

“If you have the courage to climb to the top of 
the mountain,” said the frog, “and find old Witch 
Betto, you can do it. She is angry because you did 
not invite her to your fete, and is sending the rain 
into the valley.” 

“I am afraid she will not listen to me,” said Hans. 

“No,” replied the frog; “but you can force her 
to stop .the rain by finding the green cat.” 

“I never saw a green cat, or heard of one, either,” 
said Hans. “Where can such a cat be found?” 

“That is the most difficult part,” said the frog; 
“for you will have first to find the dwarf who is 
guarding it. The green cat is the only thing in the 
world of which the old witch is afraid.” 

“Where does the dwarf live?” asked Hans, “and 
why does he guard the green cat?” 

“I will tell you,” said the frog. “The dwarf is old 
Betto’s son, who lives in a forest on the other side of 
the mountain, and in his cave he has the green cat, 
and it is guarded night and day by thousands of in- 
sects which fly at and sting any one who comes near 
the cave.” 

Hans thought of Gretchen’s tears and he said, “I 
will try, and if I fail no one will be harmed but me, 
but if I succeed everybody in the valley will be happy.” 
So he thanked the frog and turned toward the side of 
the mountain where the dwarf lived. 


20 


SANDMAN TALES 


“Put me in your pocket,” said the frog. “I may 
be of help to you.” Hans picked him up and put him 
in his pocket. It was a long way up the mountain to 
the cave of the dwarf, and Hans sat down on a rock 
to rest when he came to the edge of the forest, for 
he expected to have a hard time getting to the green 
cat which the frog told him was inside the cave. It 
was wet and dark, and he had to carry a torch all the 
way, but now the frog told him he must extinguish 
it, or the dwarf and the insects would see him. 

“The cave is only a short distance away,” said the 
frog, “and there is always a fire burning near it at 
night. When you are in front of the cave put me on 
the ground.” Hans walked along very cautiously, 
and presently he saw the fire, and in the doorway of 
the cave sat the dwarf. 

Hans carefully put the frog on the ground and 
went nearer. The dwarf did not see him until he was 
in front of him. 

He jumped up, gave a peculiar whistle, and in- 
stantly there arose what Hans thought at first was 
thick smoke, but he soon found that it was all kinds 
of insects. There were so many that they did look 
like smoke. 

The frog by this time had leaped in front of the 
dwarf, who drew back as if he had been struck a blow. 

“It is too late,” said the frog; “call back the 
insects.” 

When the frog told the dwarf to call the insects 


THE GREEN CAT 


21 


he gave the same peculiar whistle he had given when 
he first saw Hans, and the insects disappeared as 
quickly as they had come. 

“The green cat is in the cave,” said the frog. 

Hans went in and soon came out with the cat under 
his arm. 

Her fur was green and so were her eyes ; in fact, 
she looked as if she might have been dipped into a 
paint-pot. 

The dwarf begged them not to take the green cat. 
“I will do anything you ask,” he said, “if you will 
not take the cat away.” 

“You are lucky to escape without being punished,” 
said the frog. “Go into your cave, or I may change 
my mind.” 

The dwarf hurried into his cave when he heard 
this, and the frog told Hans to put him in his pocket 
again and hurry to old Betto’s cave on the other side 
of the mountain. 

Hans carried the cat under his arm and hurried 
toward the other side of the mountain as the frog 
told him. 

When they reached there the rain had ceased and 
old Betto sat in front of her cave asleep. 

Hans put the cat on the ground. When she saw 
old Betto she ran to her and made a queer sounding 
me-ow. 

Old Witch Betto opened her eyes and a look of fear 
came over her wicked old face. She got up and tried 




22 


SANDMAN TALES 


to get away, but the green cat ran in front of her. 
“We are face to face at break of day,” said the cat, 
“and I change to my natural form.” As she finished 
speaking a young girl stood in the place of the green 
cat. “And now you shall give my lover his natural 
form also,” said the girl. Old Betto was trembling so 
that she could hardly hold the cane which she held 
over the frog, mumbling as she did so. 

In the place where the frog had been a minute 
before a young gentleman appeared. He took the 
hand of the girl and held it to his lips. 

Hans had been so busy watching the lovers that 
he did not notice that old Betto was sinking into the 
rock against which she was leaning, and when he 
looked around she had entirely disappeared and only 
a big stone remained. 

The sun was just coming up over the mountain 
when Hans and his new friends started for the valley. 

The young gentleman told Hans his story as he 
walked down the mountain. 

“I am a prince,” he said, “and this lady is a prin- 
cess whom I was to marry, but on the night of the 
wedding old Betto enticed her to her cave by telling 
her she would give her a charm that would insure 
happiness for the rest of her life. 

“When the princess reached the cave old Betto 
tried to get her to marry her son, the dwarf, who 
had seen the princess at some time and fallen in love 
with her. When the princess refused to marry the 


THE GREEN CAT 


2 3 


dwarf old witch Betto changed her into a green cat 
and gave her to the dwarf to guard, saying, ‘You 
will never resume your natural form until we are face 
to face at break of day.’ And she was so sure that 
the dwarf would not let the green cat escape that 
she added, ‘ and when that happens I will become a 
rock.’ 

“I found out that the princess had gone to old 
Betto’s cave, and when I went to ask what had be- 
come of the princess she was frightened and changed 
me into a frog so I could not return to my home for 
help. 

‘“If you want your bride,’ she said, ‘climb to the 
other side of the mountain,’ and she dropped me into 
the valley. Of course, I could not climb a mountain 
in the form of a frog, but when I met you on the road 
I felt sure you would help me.” 

“In helping you,” said Hans, “I have brought 
happiness to many others, for the rain has stopped 
falling and the fete can go on, and Gretchen and I 
will be married to-day. I cannot thank you enough.” 

The prince told Hans that he was the one to be 
thankful, for without him he could not have reached 
the princess. 

The princess and the prince went their way and 
Hans said “Good-by,” and hurried to Gretchen ’s 
cottage, where he found her all smiles, and dressed 
in her new cap and embroidered petticoat for the 
wedding. 


24 


SANDMAN TALES 


“Did you really pull his head out of the clouds?” 
she asked, pointing to the sun. 

Hans laughed and said, “I told you he should shine 
for you, and if I had climbed to the top of the moun- 
tain your smile would have been ample reward.” 

He did not tell Gretchen about old Betto or the 
green cat, but years afterward when there were little 
boys and girls playing about their door Hans used 
to tell them a story of a green cat that was guarded 
by a dwarf who lived on the other side of the moun- 
tain that was in front of their home. 



THE THEFT OF THE FAIRIES’ WANDS 

T HE Goblins and the Gnomes were jealous of the 
Fairies and one night they decided to steal their 
wands. They knew, of course, it would be very hard 
to do so, for the Fairies were always awake at night, 
so they arranged a plan to frighten them, thinking 
that they would drop their wands and they could pick 
them up and run. 

The Fairies lived in a mossy valley, where there 
was a river, and the Goblins and Gnomes hid in this 
river with just their eyes above the water, so that 
the Goblins looked like so many frogs and the Gnomes 
like brown leaves floating about. 

“Now, we must wait,” said the Goblins, “until all 
the Fairies are in sight; they will have to pass this 
river to get out of the valley, and then we can jump 
and splash the water so that it will fall on their faces ; 
they do not like to be wet and they will drop their 


26 


SANDMAN TALES 


wands and cover their faces with their hands; the 
rest will be easy.” 

By and by the Fairies began to appear, and when 
they were all together the Queen drove along and 
they started out of the valley. 

When they reached the river the Goblins and 
Gnomes jumped, screaming and splashing the water 
over the poor little Fairies, who dropped their wands 
and covered their faces and ran. Out of the water 
hopped the Goblins and Gnomes and picked up the 
wands and ran into the woods, and by the time the 
Fairies had dried their eyes so they could see, the 
Goblins and Gnomes were out of sight. 

“What shall we do?” cried the Fairies. “They 
have taken our wands and we are powerless, and no 
one knows what harm those wicked creatures may do 
with them.” But the Queen quieted them by holding 
up her wand; it had dropped in the bottom of her 
carriage when she let it fall and was not noticed by 
the Goblins and Gnomes. 

“Do not worry,”' she told them; “they will very 
soon be begging you to come and get your wands, 
for I intend to make them very uncomfortable. 
Wait here,” she told the Fairies, and away she 
drove in the direction the Goblins and Gnomes 
had gone. 

The Goblins and Gnomes had gone into the woods, 
and as soon as they found a clear space they stopped 
running. 


THE THEFT OF THE FAIRIES’ WANDS 27 

“Now,” they said, “we will transform everything 
here and make a place worth having.” 

One of them touched a tree with the wand and 
there appeared a large house, but the others did not 
want a house. Then a Goblin turned a rock into a 
pond, and the Gnomes said it was one of their doors, 
and they fell to quarreling and striking one another 
with the wands, and each one that was touched with 
a wand was turned to stone. Then the wands burned 
the hands of the others and when they* threw them 
on the ground they became like serpents of fire and 
chased them about until those that were not turned 
to stone were running about in all directions to 
escape from the fiery wands. 

In the midst of all this the Fairy Queen appeared, 
and when the Goblins and Gnomes saw her they ran 
to her and begged that she would take away the 
wands. But she told them if they wished to be rid 
of them and have their companions changed into 
their natural forms they must go to the Fairies and 
beg their pardon and ask them to come for the wands, 
as each wand was governed by the Fairy to whom it 
belonged. Away ran the Goblins and Gnomes; they 
found the Fairies and told them they were sorry they 
had frightened them and splashed the water in their 
faces ; then they begged them to come and take away 
the wands. When the Fairies came to where the 
Queen was waiting the wands lay quietly on the 
ground, and each Fairy picked up her wand. 

3 


28 


SANDMAN TALES 


“Will you please touch our companions who have 
been turned to stone?” the Goblins and Gnomes asked 
in a very humble manner, “and the house and pond 
also,” they said. “We do not want anything left to 
remind us of those dreadful wands.” 

The Queen granted all but one request. “The 
pond must stay as it is,” she said. “That will remind 
you of your wrong-doing, and if ever you annoy the 
Fairies again the water will boil and run over your 
rocks and sink into the earth and bum you.” The 
Goblins and Gnomes ran away as fast as they could, 
promising never to molest the Fairies again. 



HELEN’S GREAT-GRANDMOTHER 

H ELEN had a great-grandmother, who lived with 
her grandmother, and when Helen went to see 
her grandmother she spent an hour each day in 
Grandma Great’s room. One day, while Helen was 
sitting with her, she asked, “How old are you, 
Grandma Great?” 

“ I am eighty years young, my dear,” was the reply. 
“Young?” said Helen. “I thought eighty very 
old.” 

“No,” answered Grandma Great, “not if your 
heart is young.” 

“And is your heart young?” inquired Helen. 

“Yes, my heart is young; all these things keep it 
so,” said Grandma Great, pointing to the old-fash- 
ioned furniture around the room. 

Helen looked her thoughts very plainly. She did 
not understand how all that old furniture could make 
any one feel young. 


SANDMAN TALES 


30 

“Then I have many other things,” Grandma 
Great continued, “which you. do not see, and when I 
feel a bit like growing old I look at them and I am 
young again. Would you like to see them?” 

Helen’s curiosity was really aroused, and she was 
eager to see what wonderful things could make 
Grandma Great feel young. 

Grandma opened the drawer of an old-fashioned 
bureau. There were wonderful boxes. One was 
called a handkerchief-box; it opened in the middle, 
and two little tapes held it together; then the covers 
opened on either side. Grandma Great took out a 
little lace collar. It was fine as a spider’s web. 

“This was one of my wedding-collars,” she told 
Helen. Then there was a fine linen handkerchief, 
yellow with age, with the tiniest flowers embroidered 
in one comer. There was a chain made of hair, with 
a gold clasp, and also a ring made of hair, with a 
little gold buckle, which made it look like a tiny 
belt. 

Grandma Great handed her a picture. 

“See if you can tell who this is,” she said. Helen 
looked and saw a very pretty girl, with black curls 
and pink cheeks. Her eyes were black, like her own, 
and she had on a dress made — oh, so queerly! — of 
flowered material. 

“I was eighteen when that was taken,” said 
Grandma Great. Helen thought she looked like a 
beautiful wax doll, and wondered if Grandma Great 


HELEN’S GREAT-GRANDMOTHER 


3 * 


was as young and pretty as that, and then she won- 
dered if some day she would be old like Grandma 
Great. She had never thought of it before. 

“Here is a picture of your great-grandfather, taken 
when we were married.” Helen saw a handsome 
young man, with blue eyes and brown, curling hair. 
He looked very straight, and he had on a high collar, 
and it looked to Helen as though he had yards of 
black satin wound around it. Then there was a fan 
with pearl sticks, and on one of the outside sticks 
was a tiny mirror. She was told that it would be 
hers some day. 

Then there was a funny pair of kid gloves — pale 
pink, with little brass hooks. “These were my wed- 
ding-gloves,” said Grandma Great, “and these were 
my traveling-gloves.” Helen thought she never had 
seen anything so funny as the second pair, which were 
bright green. 

Then there were queer little ties with tassels and a 
pair of stockings the color of the pink gloves. “They 
were my wedding-stockings, and your grandmother 
wore them when she was married,” said Grandma 
Great, “and I hope they will be yours some day.’* 

Helen thought that very odd. She did not want to 
wear old stockings when she was married. There 
were locks of hair tied with ribbon, and pictures of 
people in queer-looking clothes. 

“Here is a breastpin your great-grandfather gave 
me, with his hair in it.” 


32 


SANDMAN TALES 


Helen took it in her hand and looked at it. She 
thought it very odd that any one should want to 
wear a pin like that. There was a watch with a gold 
face, and on the back of the case was a house and 
trees. “That will be yours also,” Grandma Great 
told her, but Helen did not think she would ever 
wear such a big watch. 

“My wedding-dress is in that trunk. Would you 
like to see it?” Helen told her she would, for she 
often wondered what was in the trunk covered with 
hair. 

“Oh, my! that is beautiful!” exclaimed Helen, as 
Grandma Great held up a dress of pale pink silk with 
little sprays of green on it. The skirt was very full and 1 
long, and the waist looked as though it might fit 
Helen. 

“Your grandmother wore this dress at her silver 
wedding,” said Grandma Great. “I wish you might, 
but I’m afraid it will not hold together till then. 
Here is the shawl I wore also, that you will have, and 
can wear, I think.” It was the palest pearl color, 
with fringe around it and embroidered with big 
flowers. “And these were my wedding-slippers; your 
grandmother wore these also, when she was married, 
and I hope you may be able to.” But Helen thought 
the same as she did about the stockings — she would 
want new ones. 

“Here is something you will like,” said Grandma 
Great as she handed Helen a box. Helen took off the 


HELEN’S GREAT-GRANDMOTHER 


33 


cover, and there were valentines, yellow with age, 
but the prettiest she had ever seen. “You can amuse 
yourself looking at them,” Grandma Great told her. 
There were valentines with lace and pretty colored 
papers, and one was of satin and perfumed, but the 
one that pleased Helen the most was a lace one which 
had a little mirror in the center, with blue paper 
around it, and under it, in gilt letters, she read “My 
Sweetheart.” 

“Where is the sweetheart?” she asked. 

Grandma Great laughed. “Look in the mirror,” 
she told her. 

“Oh! that is so funny,” said Helen. And in one 
comer were little cupids with a banner which read 
“With fondest love ” ; and in another a pair of turtle- 
doves with a banner in their bills which read, “Re- 
member me.” 

“Here is a package of letters,” said Helen, when 
she came to the bottom of the box, and she handed 
them to Grandma Great. They had queer-looking 
stamps on them and were tied with a blue ribbon. 

“Those were written to me by your great-grand- 
father,” said Grandma Great, “when he was my lover, 
or I should say before we were married, for he was 
always my lover,” and she pressed the letters to her 
lips. Helen went on looking at the valentines. When 
she had finished she saw that Grandma Great had 
fallen asleep. The letters were in her lap and she had 
her sweetheart’s picture in one hand. 


34 


SANDMAN TALES 


Helen looked at her. There was a smile upon her 
face, and somehow Helen understood what she had 
meant by keeping young, and after that day’s visit 
Helen always felt that Grandma Great was much 
younger than she had ever thought her. 



THE TOO-AMBITIOUS SPIDER 

T HE crack in the storeroom door was not very 
large, but when a spider running along the 
floor saw it he said, “I wonder what is in there?” 
And looking through the crack, he saw that it was the 
storeroom, and, as he was looking for a home for him- 
self, he crawled through the crack and in a minute 
was in the room all by himself. 

“A nice large room,” he said, “and well fitted to be 
my home.” 

As he looked around he saw in one corner a mirror 
from which a piece of the corner had been broken; 
by the window a chair from which the seat was gone, 
and in the middle of the room a table from which a 
leg was missing, and which stood somewhat unsteadily 
on the three that were left. 

At the windows there were no curtains, but the 
closed blinds shut out the bright light, and in the half- 


36 


SANDMAN TALES 


darkness the spider went around the room and looked 
over the furnishings. 

“First,” he said, “I will mend the mirror, for then 
I may be able to see myself, and since no one is to live 
with me, that will keep me from being lonesome.” 

And beginning at the edge of the break in the glass 
he spun his finest thread from there to the frame. 
Then back and forth he traveled, carrying the thread 
with him and spinning such a fine web as he had 
never spun before, “for,” said he, “I must make the 
web look as much like the mirror as I can, and then 
the break will not be noticed.” And when he was 
finished the break was nicely mended and, except 
that it did not shine as the glass did, and reflected 
no image when he looked in it, it was, nevertheless, 
handsomely mended. 

Then he went over to the chair. “They certainly 
did get a lot of wear out of that chair,” he remarked, 
“for there isn’t enough of the seat left to tell what it 
is made of. However, when I have finished it will be 
as good as new and even better for my use.” 

So, beginning at one corner of the seat frame, he 
spun a thread which reached to the other corner and 
then a thread which, crossing the first thread, reached 
between the two other comers, and then with these 
as a foundation he wove a beautiful web which cov- 
ered the whole of the seat. Since the bottom of the 
chair was larger than the break in the mirror, he used 
a larger and a stronger thread, and when he had 


THE TOO-AMBITIOUS SPIDER 


37 


finished and sat down in the middle of the web he 
said to himself: “No one could ask for a handsomer 
chair or one with a stronger seat, and I shall spend 
much of my time sitting in this chair and rocking 
back and forth.” 

And then when he went to the table and, crawling 
to the top, he walked along to the comer where the 
leg was missing and, fastening a thread to the edge 
of the table-top, he dropped over the side and lowered 
himself to the floor. Having fastened his thread 
there, he crawled up the thread already spun and was 
soon at the top again, and, going back and forth and 
up and down many times, he had at length a cord of 
considerable size. “There,” he said, “so strong a 
support as that ought never to break. And now, 
having mended all the things which needed mending, 
I will settle down for a winter’s rest.” 

But he had only been there a few days when he 
heard footsteps on the stairs, and quite before he 
knew it the door opened and in stepped a maid with 
broom and duster, dustpan and bmsh. 

“What a dirty room!” she said. “Mistress would 
surely be angry if she should see all this dust and these 
cobwebs,” and so saying, with half a dozen motions of 
the duster she destroyed every web that the spider 
had made. Then she swept the room and dusted it, 
and in half an hour or so she had finished and gone. 

“Well, what would you think of that?” said the 
spider; “all my work destroyed by a careless servant. 


38 


SANDMAN TALES 


I shall have to do it all over, but next time I will 
protect myself against another such accident.” And 
so after he respun the webs on the mirror and on the 
chair and on the table, he went over to the door and 
spun his strongest web across the keyhole and around 
the knob of the door. 

“We will see now,” he said, “if I will be intruded 
on by servants that have nothing better to do than 
to tear down things faster than I can build them up. 
When she tries that door she will find it securely 
fastened, and on the inside, too, and it will teach her 
to keep out.” 

But it was only a few days after when, to his sur- 
prise, the same maid came to the door and without 
any more effort than usual opened it and came in with 
the same broom and the same duster and the same 
dustpan and the same brush and in the same manner 
as before destroyed all the results of the spider’s work. 

When she had gone out the spider was discouraged. 
“What is the use,” he said, “of a spider trying to 
have things like people who are greater than he? I 
build for days and they destroy in a minute. I think 
I will build me a web in the comer and live as other 
spiders do.” So he built him a web in the corner, and 
when a few days later the maid came again to clean 
the room she did not see the web, and the spider 
rested in peace. “After all,” he said, “I am com- 
fortable here, and mirrors and chairs were really not 
made for spiders.” 



THE BOX OF FLAMES 
NCE upon a time in a far-off country there lived 



vy a poor peddler named Joga and his wife named 
Damar. They made curious jewelry, which Joga sold 
in the street of the big city. On his way home one 
day, after having sold very little of his jewelry and 
wondering how he and Damar would live if trade did 
not grow better, he saw a girl standing under a tree 
by the roadside. 

“Oh, good lady,” he said, holding up a ring from 
his tray, “please buy a ring; it will well adorn such 
a hand as yours.” 

The girl took the ring from Joga and said: “It is 
very beautiful. Let me see the other pieces of jewelry. ’ ’ 
Joga handed them all to her, but she shook her head, 
saying: “No, I like this curious ring best. I will keep 
it, but you will have to go to a King who lives at the 
other side of the country for your pay.” 


40 


SANDMAN TALES 


“Suppose he will not pay me,” said Joga, looking 
anxiously at the ring on her finger, for she was walking 
away. “Oh, have no fear of that!” said the girl, “he 
will pay you, but if he should refuse, tell him he will 
find the exact amount in the box of streaming flames, 
to which he has the key.” The girl went into the 
forest and seemed to become a part of the trees. 

Joga walked away quite dazed by what had oc- 
curred, but the thought of what Damar would say 
when he told her what had happened brought him 
to his senses. “She will never believe me,” he 
said. “She will think I sold the ring and spent 
the money,” but he resolved to tell the truth and 
try to get her to go to the place with him, as the 
girl had directed. 

“You are a foolish old man,” said Damar, when he 
told her his story, “you will have a long journey and 
get nothing for your trouble. You had better try to 
find the girl and get your ring back.” But Joga said 
he would try to get the money from the King first, 
and finally persuaded Damar to go with him. She 
scolded him all along the hot, dusty road and he 
wished many times he had left her at home. 

At last they reached the end of their journey and 
found the palace, but when Joga told the King he had 
come for money for a ring he sold to a girl on the road 
the King laughed and said, “I cannot pay for rings 
you are foolish enough to sell to people you meet on 
the road.” 


THE BOX OF FLAMES 


4i 


“The girl also told me,” said Joga, “that if you 
refused to pay me I was to say that when you un- 
locked the box of streaming flames you would find 
the exact sum to pay me.” 

When the King heard this he ran out of the room, 
telling Joga and Damar to follow him. He led them 
through long halls and dark passages until he came 
to a flight of stairs, which he went down, and when 
he reached the bottom in the distance Joga saw 
what looked to be a small fire, but when they came 
near to it he saw it was a box surrounded by little 
flames. 

“You will be burnt if you try to open it,” said 
Joga; but before his astonished eyes the flames 
vanished as the King touched the box, and when he 
had unlocked it there was the exact sum Joga had 
asked for his ring. 

But the King did not seem interested in that, for he 
took a small leather bag from the box and opened it. 
It contained an emerald of large size and a tiny glass 
bottle which seemed to contain only one drop of 
dark-red liquid. 

Joga and Damar watched him, wondering what all 
this could mean. The King put these things back in 
the bag and ran up the stairs. Joga looked back and 
the box had disappeared, as well as the flames. They 
followed the King, who led them through the long hall 
again and up many flights of stairs until he came to 
the top of the castle in the tower, where he opened a 


42 


SANDMAN TALES 


door. A serpent coiled on the floor in front of the 
door raised its head and looked at them. In the middle 
of the room on a rug lay a beautiful girl. She was very 
white and did not move. The King held the emerald 
in front of the serpent, and it fell upon the floor, dead. 
Then he went to the girl and dropped the red liquid 
from the bottle between her parted lips. Slowly her 
eyes opened and she smiled. The King lifted her in 
his arms and carried her out of the room. Then he 
told Joga and Damar the story of the box of streaming 
flames. 

The girl was his wife and Queen and when they 
were married a witch had thrown a spell over her 
because of her beauty, which was greater than her 
daughter’s, whom she intended the King should 
marry. The witch had set the serpent to watch and 
keep away any one who tried to rescue her from her 
power. But the daughter of the witch had told him 
that at her mother’s death, when she should inherit 
the power of a witch, she would free the Queen. 

She sent him a box which was surrounded by 
flames, telling him that when the time came she 
would give hip^ permission to open it, but if he 
touched it before that time the flames would con- 
sume the box and the power to free the Queen would 
be lost forever. 

The King gave Joga and Damar a bag of gold and 
they set out on their journey for home. Damar was 
smiling all the way and Joga was happy. 


THE BOX OF FLAMES 


43 


He never passed the place where he met the strange 
girl who bought his ring without looking about, and 
sometimes he was sure he saw an arm moving among 
the trees and on the finger of the hand he saw a ring, 
but he never could get near enough to see it plainly. 

4 



THE QUEEN OF THE SEA 

T HE choice of the mermaid to be Queen of the 
ocean was one of the most important events 
that the fish of the seven seas ever had known. For 
years, as far back as the oldest fish could remember, 
even as far back as a whale who was so old that he 
could no longer swim about, a man with long whiskers 
and flowing hair, who carried a three-pronged spear, 
and who answered to the name of Neptune, had been 
the King and ruler of the sea. But in his old age he 
had decided that now that there were so many ships 
and so many more fish than there used to be he had 
better give up the rule of the sea and appoint an- 
other to his throne. 

So he called all the inhabitants of the sea together 
and told them of the decision and asked whom of the 
watery world he should name to rule. 

There was very little indecision, for all the fish who 
had ever seen the mermaid knew how beautiful she 


THE QUEEN OF THE SEA 


45 


was, and those who had not seen her had heard her 
described. They knew what wonderful hair she had 
and how, when she undid it and allowed it to float in 
the water, it looked like threads of polished gold. 
They knew how the most wonderful of the coral 
was made to match the color of her lips, and 
how her skin was like the wave- washed marbles 
of a sunken city in its whiteness. They knew, 
too, of her kindness, and how, in storm, she called 
and called to the ships of the danger of the hidden 
rocks and treacherous sands and tried to keep them 
on their courses. 

And so when Father Neptune asked whom he 
should name to take his place the fishes with one 
voice chose the mermaid, and the King of the sea 
announced that she should be their Queen. 

The preparations for her crowning were immediately 
begun. At the bottom of the sea, where the sand was 
whitest, a place was selected for the throne, and 
thousands and thousands of insects began the erec- 
tion of the most wonderful coral throne you ever 
dreamed of, with the arms all inlaid with gold, which 
the fish found in the cabin of a sunken pirate ship. 
Then to attend the Queen a hundred fish with golden 
scales were chosen, and a hundred others with scales 
of silver were to stand about the throne. Two sword- 
fish were to guard her night and day and twenty 
dolphins, the fastest in all the sea, were to draw her 
chariot. 


46 


SANDMAN TALES 


But despite all this wonderful preparation the 
mermaid was not happy, for she could not decide 
what she should wear on the day she was made 
Queen. The scissor-fish were waiting to cut the 
dress, and the needle-fish were ready to sew it, but 
she could not make any choice. They brought her 
the most wonderful seaweed, as thin as the thinnest 
silk and as fine as the most beautiful lace, but 
she did not like the color. They brought long 
grasses, which they wove into beautiful cloth, but 
these did not please her, and she was almost on 
the point of declaring that there would be no 
public crowning when as a last resort she pro- 
claimed that the fish who brought her a satisfactory 
material for her gown should sit beside her and 
help her in ruling the sea. 

How the fish did swim about ! From one ocean to 
another they rushed as fast as they could, looking for 
what they hoped would please the new Queen. In 
fact, they left the mermaid all alone, so anxious was 
everybody to have the honor of sitting beside her on 
the throne. 

One day while they were all away she heard the 
tiniest voice coming from a rock just beside her, and, 
looking around, she saw an oyster, and as she looked 
she heard him speak again. 

“Your Majesty,” he said, “I cannot swim about 
and seek for the wonderful gown you want, but I 
can perhaps show you where it may be found.” 


THE QUEEN OF THE SEA 


47 


How should you know?” asked the mermaid. 
“You have not moved off that rock since you were 
born.” 

“I know that what you say is true,” said the 
oyster, “but, nevertheless, I may help you.” 

“Where is this beautiful material that you know 
about?” asked the mermaid, now anxious to get the 
knowledge even from the oyster. 

“Here in my shell,” said the oyster, and as he 
spoke he opened his shell to its full width, and the 
mermaid saw the wonderful colors of the mother-of- 
pearl with which it was lined. 

“Nothing could be more beautiful,” she exclaimed. 
“I was seeking for something which all the time was 
right by my side.” 

The other oysters, hearing her admiration, opened 
their shells and from each the mermaid gathered a bit 
of the wonderful lining. With the juice from a sea- 
weed she fastened the bits together, and when the 
fish returned to tell her that they could find nothing 
more beautiful than that which they had brought 
before they found her already dressed in the wonder- 
ful gown of mother-of-pearl. 

And when they asked where she got it she did not 
tell them, but on the day when she was crowned an 
oyster lay resting on the arm of the throne, and when 
the gold and silver fish sought to remove it she bade 
them let it stay. 

But to this day they do not know why she wished 


4 8 


SANDMAN TALES 


to have it remain, for, the oysters never having 
opened their shells again, none of the fish knew that 
the beautiful gown their Queen wore came from the 
rough and ugly-looking oysters who could not even 
swim about. 



THE SINGING RING 


NCE upon a time there was a very beautiful 



v_y Princess, and a Prince was in love with her, but 
her father, who was a King, did not like the Prince 
and would not let his daughter marry him, because 
he did not have as many castles as the King, or so 
much land. And so the pretty Princess wept and 
would not eat. 

The Prince rode past the castle every day, hoping 
he might see her, but her father kept a strict watch 
over her. One day she was in a room in a tower of 
the castle and saw the Prince from the window. She 
waved her handkerchief to him and he saw her and 
waved back. Then the Princess wept harder than 
before, and that night she went into the garden and 
walked all night. As she stood weeping by a big 
tree she heard singing. 

The Princess looked around, but no one was in 


50 


SANDMAN TALES 


sight. She saw something glistening on a bush near 
her. She looked closer and saw a ring. As she 
touched it the ring began singing: 

“Oh, I am a true-lovers’ knot; 

Never let this be forgot. 

Those who wear me 
Always happy shall be, 

For I am a true-lovers’ knot.” 

The Princess put the ring upon her finger, and 
though it stopped singing, she felt happier. Then 
she noticed that it was in the form of a lovers’ knot. 
The next day when she went to the tower to watch 
for her lover, she was not crying, for the ring kept 
singing to her, and when the Prince went past she 
waved her handkerchief with the hand which wore the 
ring, and away flew the handkerchief toward the 
Prince. 

As it flew it became a white dove, and when it re- 
turned it held in its bill a love message for the Princess 
from the Prince, telling her not to weep, that all again 
would be well. The ring began singing again: 

“Oh, I am a true-lovers’ knot; 

Never let this be forgot. 

Those who wear me 
Always happy shall be, 

For I am a true-lovers’ knot.” 

That night the King and Queen were awakened by 
a bright light in their room. The castle was on fire. 


THE SINGING RING 


5i 


They ran to the Princess’s room, but they could not 
pass the flames. The King was in despair and offered 
a big reward for any one who would rescue the 
Princess. 

A horseman was seen riding at full speed toward 
the castle. He climbed up the castle wall to the 
Princess’s window, and a flock of white doves dropped 
water on him from their bills as he passed through 
the flames. He soon reappeared with the Princess in 
his arms, and the doves dropped water on them and 
they were unharmed. 

The King was so thankful that his daughter was 
safe that he did not notice who had rescued her until 
he offered him a bag of gold as his reward. 

The Prince, for it was he, pushed the gold aside, 
saying, ‘ ‘ I want more than that ; I wish your daughter 
for my wife.” The Princess pleaded with the King, 
telling him that her life belonged to the Prince because 
he had saved her from the flames, and so the old King 
gave his consent. But while the castle had appeared 
to be in flames, there were no signs of fire when the 
wedding took place next day. The white doves flew 
around while the ceremony was being performed and 
then flew away. The ring kept singing to the Prin- 
cess, who seemed to be the only one who heard it, but 
when the Prince wanted her to put his ring in its 
place she told him about finding the wonderful ring, 
and he told her she must never part with it, but wear 
it all her life. 


52 


SANDMAN TALES 


The next day the Princess rode away with the 
Prince on his black horse, and the ring sang to them 
as they rode along: 

“Oh, I am a true -lovers’ knot; 

Never let this be forgot. 

Those who wear me 
Always happy shall be, 

For I am a true-lover’s knot.” 



JACK FROST’S CARDS 

R UDOLPH lived on the side of a mountain in a 
country where they told wonderful stories of 
Fairies and Goblins, and often at night when every one 
was asleep Rudolph would watch and listen. 

He had heard that sometimes at night when the 
Fairies were holding a revel in the mountains, a mortal 
was sometimes fortunate enough to be summoned to 
be present to enjoy the wild scene. 

Some old people have said that “a watched pot 
never boils,” and so it was with Rudolph; he watched 
and waited many nights and no Goblins came. 

But one night he was awakened from a sound sleep 
by hearing some one call his name like this: “Ru- 
dolph! Rudolph!” 

He jumped out of bed and ran to the top of the 
stairs, thinking it was his mother calling him, but he 
found no one there 

As he turned around he saw a queer little head, 



54 


SANDMAN TALES 


wearing a pointed cap, bobbing backward and for- 
ward, and beckoning to him with its slim pointed 
finger. , 

Rudolph ran to the window. “How did you get up 
here?” he asked, for he knew it was a Goblin. 

“I crept up the side of the house,” said the Goblin. 
“Be quick, now,” he told Rudolph. “Dress and come 
with me. I have been sent to summon you to one of 
our revels to be held on the mountain to-night. We 
are getting ready to send out Jack Frost’s cards.” 

It did not take Rudolph long to get dressed, and 
in a few minutes he was running over the mountains 
with the Goblin. 

When they came to a forest the Goblin stopped. 
“Here is where the revel will be held,” he said. 

Rudolph looked around; but there was not a Goblin 
to be seen excepting his friend. 

There were owls and rabbits and squirrels, and 
even bears sitting in the doorway of their cave. 

“Where are your brothers?” asked Rudolph. 

“They will be here at the stroke of midnight,” an- 
swered the Goblin. 

Rudolph wondered why all the animals were there, 
and he soon learned. 

As the clock in the valley struck twelve the Goblins 
popped up from behind rocks, out of rocks, and from 
behind trees. 

Rudolph’s friend told them he had brought the 
boy for which they had sent him, and one of the 


JACK FROST’S CARDS 


55 


Goblins said: “We know you have been a good boy. 
You helped your mother, and we wish to reward you. 

“After we finish our work to-night tell us what we 
can do to help you. Now we must begin our night’s 
work,” he said to the other Goblins, “or Jack Frost 
will arrive before his cards are out. All of the trees 
and bushes must be turned brown to-night.” 

When he finished speaking one of the owls flew 
down to a lower limb of the tree where he was sitting. 
‘ ‘ I protest , ” he said, ‘ ‘ against such an early fall. Y ou 
can wait a month later just as well.” 

“Yes,” said a squirrel, “ you will have a long winter 
even if you give us another month, and my present 
supply will not carry me through the cold weather. 
What do you say, Mr. Rabbit?” he asked. 

“I think as you do,” answered the rabbit, “and I 
should like very much to have another meal of green 
tops, but if they carry out their work to-night I can- 
not have it.” 

The bears came from their cave and Mr. Bear 
said: “I have let the others speak first, but really 
my reason for wishing to defer the fall is far more 
serious than the reasons given by the others. My 
wife and I will have to sleep much longer, and going 
to bed so early deprives us of much pleasure. Hold 
Jack’s cards back for two weeks at least.” 

“Yes, do,” pleaded the rabbit, “and besides that 
he stayed later than usual last winter.” 

The Goblins listened in silence to all these com- 


56 


SANDMAN TALES 


plaints. They sat on the ground, leaning their elbows 
on their knees and holding a thin pointed forefinger 
on each round cheek. 

When the animals finished speaking they rolled 
their eyes about, looking at one another, and one of 
them said: “What shall we do? Everything is ready 
for coloring the trees, and Jack expects it to be done 
to-night so that his cards will blow all over the land 
to-morrow, and the people will know he will soon 
be with them. 

“If we do not send out the cards he may come 
upon them suddenly and nip everything in sight with 
his cold breath.” 

“We have never asked a favor of you before,” 
said Mr. Rabbit, “and I think you should grant this.” 

“I think so, too,” said Mr. Bear, “and as you say, 
the spring was late this year, and I had to sleep later 
than- usual.” 

“Well,” said one of the Goblins, “ I think we’d better 
help the animals this time; we will hold the cards back 
two weeks, but then they must go out. Put your 
paint pots and brushes where you can get them at a 
moment’s notice.” 

The animals thanked the Goblins and ran home. 

Rudolph’s friend sat down beside him. “I am 
sorry to disappoint you,” he said, “but if there is 
time I will surely come for you when the revel takes 
place. I had no idea these animals would make such 
a fuss.” 


JACK FROST’S CARDS 


57 


“ I am not disappointed in the least,” said Rudolph. 
“I have enjoyed being here, and now I know why 
the fall begins late some years; and, besides that, I 
can look out for my plants and cover them every 
night, for I know that Jack Frost may come before 
his cards are out.” 

“What can we do for you?” asked the Goblin. “We 
want to help you in some way.” 

“If you would fix the cracks in the roof of my 
room -so Jack Frost and the rain will not get at me I 
can look out for the vegetables and other things.” 

“We will do that some night soon,” said the Goblin, 
“and now I must take you home; you can walk much 
faster if I am with you.” 

Rudolph laughed when he thought how big he was 
compared with the little Goblin. But it was true; he 
seemed to fly over the ground with the Goblin beside 
him. 

One night Rudolph was awakened by hearing a 
sound like the patter of rain on the roof. He waited, 
expecting to feel the drops on his face. Then he 
noticed that the moon was shining and he knew it 
was the Goblins repairing the roof. 

Rudolph went to sleep again, feeling quite sure his 
vegetables were safe, for he had covered everything 
that could freeze. And in the morning when he awoke 
there was a white frost over everything and Rudolph 
wondered what Jack Frost said to the Goblins for 
neglecting to send out his cards in time. 



THE GOBLINS’ FEAST 

F LORENCE and Nicholas were sister and brother 
and one day while they were playing in the 
weeds they met a Goblin who was running toward a 
big rock. “Why are you in such a hurry?” asked 
Nicholas. “Stop a minute and tell us where you live.” 

“I must hurry home,” said the Goblin, “for it is a 
feast-day with us and all the trees will be full to-day.” 

“What have the trees to do with your feast?” asked 
the children. 

“Why, don’t you know,” said the Goblin, “that 
once a year where I live the trees are filled with all 
kinds of good things to eat and you can eat and eat 
and nothing will hurt you!” 

“I wish we had a tree like that,” said Florence. 
“So do I,” said Nicholas. “Can’t you take us with 
you?” 

“Yes,” replied the Goblin, “if you will hurry.’'’ 


THE GOBLINS’ FEAST 


59 


Florence and Nicholas followed him as he ran, and 
when they were at a big rock covered with moss the 
Goblin tapped on it three times and said, “ Su ot nepo,” 
and the rock opened. It was dark at first and the 
children walked very carefully, but in a few minutes 
they saw the light and then they saw an orchard 
filled with trees, and the Goblins were flying around, 
picking things from the branches. Some of the 
Goblins were on ladders, picking sandwiches. “You 
will have to help yourselves,” the Goblin told Florence 
and Nicholas, “for this happens only once a year and 
each one has to look out for his share,” and off he ran. 

“I like chicken sandwiches best,” said Nicholas. 
“Let us find that tree.” 

“Here it is,” said Florence, looking between the 
pieces of bread. 

Florence filled her apron and Nicholas took all he 
could carry in both hands, and they sat down to eat 
them. Then Florence saw a tree filled with pickles. 
Nicholas ran and picked some, and then he saw a 
tree of potato chips. “Oh, I do love these!” he said. 
“I wish I had a basket.” 

“Borrow one from the Goblins,” said Florence. 
The Goblins were good-natured that day and let him 
have a large one, and soon they were enjoying the 
food they had gathered. 

“I am going to eat all I want,” said Nicholas. “The 
Goblins said it would not hurt you on this day.” 

When they had eaten all the sandwiches Nicholas 

5 


6o 


SANDMAN TALES 


saw a tree filled with cake of all kinds, and next to 
that was a tree of cones which were filled with all 
kinds of ice-cream. And the strangest thing was that 
after they had eaten all they wanted they could eat 
as much more and not feel uncomfortable. 

“Oh, there is a candy tree!” said Florence. Nicho- 
las filled his pockets and Florence her apron, for they 
had never eaten all the candy they wanted, and this 
was their chance. There were many kinds, and the 
children were soon running back to the tree for more. 

“There is a well/’ said Nicholas; “I am thirsty,” 
and when he drew the bucket to the top he found it 
was filled with ice-cream soda instead of water. 

“Let us sit right beside this well,” said Florence, 
“and drink ice-cream soda the rest of the day.” But 
they grew tired of that after a while and looked 
around for the Goblins. “Where are they?” asked 
Florence, as they came near the orchard. “I do not 
see them anywhere.” 

“They are lying on the ground,” said Nicholas, as 
they came nearer. 

“Are they dead?” asked Florence, as Nicholas 
shook one of them and he did not awaken. 

“No,” said Nicholas, “they are asleep. Oh!” he 
cried, jumping back as a loud snore came from the 
Goblin, and then all the sleeping Goblins began to 
make such a noise that the children put their hands 
over their ears and ran. 

When they reached the rock where they entered 


THE GOBLINS’ FEAST 


61 


the Goblins’ land they stopped and sat down on the 
ground. “Oh, I am so sleepy !’’ said Florence, leaning 
her head against the rock, and she was sound asleep 
before Nicholas realized what she was doing. And 
then she began to breathe hard just as the Goblins 
had. 

“Oh dear! what will I do!” said Nicholas; “I 
feel sleepy, too, but I dare not go to sleep, for no 
knowing what might happen.” So he tapped on the 
rock three times and said “Su ot nepo,” and the rock 
opened. 

“I cannot leave Florence here. Wake up,” he 
cried, shaking her; but she only breathed louder 
than ever. 

A rabbit, running along, saw him. “What is the 
matter?” he asked. 

Nicholas told him they had been to the Goblins’ 
feast and that Florence had gone to sleep and he 
could not awaken her. 

“She will sleep a month,” said the rabbit, “if you 
do not get her out of that place; and you will go to 
sleep, too, if you stay in there. Can’t you pull her 
out!” 

Nicholas took Florence by the shoulders and 
dragged her to the entrance of the rock, and as soon 
as she breathed the air of the outside world she 
opened her eyes. 

“Where am I?” she asked, looking around. 

“You have been asleep,” said Nicholas, “and you 


62 SANDMAN TALES 

made a terrible noise breathing, just as the Goblins 
did.” 

“The food you ate at the Goblins’ feast will not 
hurt you,” said the rabbit, “but it will put you to 
sleep for a whole month. You are lucky to get out, 
for you might have turned into a rock or a tree in 
that time, as some of the Goblins will.” 

“It is queer,” said Nicholas, as they walked home, 
‘ ‘ but I feel just as hungry as though I had not eaten 
a thing at the Goblins’ feast.” 

“So do I,” said Florence. “Let us hurry home, for 
it must be dinner-time.” 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE ROSES 
NE day a bee was buzzing from flower to flower 



V_/ in a garden when a big red rose said to him, “ Do 
you expect to visit the white rose to-day J” 

“Yes,” answered the bee. “Can I do anything for 
you?” 

“I should like you to tell her I send my love to 
her,” said the red rose. 

“Yes, indeed, I will tell her,” replied the bee; “I 
have made a great many matches in this garden.” 

“Oh, I am afraid I never shall win her!” said the 
red rose; “she is so cold and stately looking.” 

“Leave it to me,” said the bee; “I can find the 
heart of any flower.” 

So away he flew to the white rose. 

“Good morning. You are very sweet,” he said, as 
he sipped the honey. “I know of some one who 
thinks you the sweetest flower in the garden.” The 


6 4 


SANDMAN TALES 


white rose blushed a faint pink and turned her 
head. “Don’t you care to know who it is?” buzzed 
the bee. 

“Oh, I suppose it is that horrid hollyhock,” said 
the naughty little rose, knowing quite well who it 
was that loved her. The bee buzzed closer and said, 
“The red rose sent his love,” and then he flew off a 
little way. 

White rose tossed her head from side to side, try- 
ing to hide her blushes and smiles. The bee buzzed 
back and said, “I’ll tell him you send yours to him,” 
and he flew away a short distance. 

“Oh, please come back!” cried the trembling white 
rose. 

The bee flew back. 

“I do not send such a message,” she said. “My 
love is not so lightly given.” 

“Very well, I’ll tell him you do not love him!” 
buzzed the bee, and away he flew. 

“Oh no, no ! ” she cried. ‘ ‘ Come back ! come back ! ’ ’ 

The bee flew back to her. “Well,” he said, “what 
is it? Have you changed your mind and want me to 
tell him you do love him?” 

But the white rose would not say. 

“If you do not want me to tell him you do not 
love him, then you must love him. Which is it? I 
have work to do, and this is your last chance; I shall 
not come back again. He loves you. Shall I tell 
him you do not love him?” 


THE MARRIAGE OF THE ROSES 65 

The silly rose hung her head. “Give him my 
love,” she said, faintly. 

Away flew the bee as fast as ever he could go. “She 
will change her mind if I do not hurry,” he said. 

Red rose was watching for him. 

“She loves you,” buzzed the bee. “I told you I 
could find out what was in her heart.” 

“Then we will be married,” said the red rose. 

The wedding took place one morning when the 
dew was on the flowers and the sun was shining its 
first rays. The lilies-of-the-valley were the brides- 
maids, and a tall, stately lily was matron of honor. 
Jack-in- the-pulpit performed the ceremony, and the 
daintiest little moss rosebud was flower-girl. The tiger- 
lilies were the ushers. The morning-glories were up 
bright and early, and stayed awake longer than usual. 
And all the flowers had on their prettiest dresses. 

The bee was the first one to offer congratulations 
after the ceremony. The modest little violet cast a 
sly glance at the bride and groom, and sighed as she 
thought she very likely never would marry. 

The bee buzzed around, looking for another chance 
to make a match, for he was a very busy bee and 
wanted to make everybody happy, because they gave 
forth more sweetness for him to make honey from. 

And this is the reason you see him buzzing from 
flower to flower — he is whispering love messages .and 
bringing sweetness into the hearts of all the flowers 
to which he whispers. 



BILLY BULL’S LESSON 

B ILLY BULL was just a young frog without very 
much experience in the world and not a great 
deal of judgment to take the place of that experience. 
Never since he was a pollywog had he been beyond 
the shores of the pond where he was born. But one 
day while he was sunning himself on a lily pad he 
saw a duck with her brood swimming toward him 
and called out to her to come nearer. 

As she stopped swimming she said: “You called 
to me and I have come over here, although I am very 
busy teaching my ducklings how to swim. What 
do you want?” 

“Teaching your ducklings how to swim? Why, I 
did not know there was anybody in the world so 
ignorant that he did not know how to swim. I could 
swim as soon as I was born, but, then, not many 


BILLY BULL’S LESSON 67 

people are as wise as a frog”; and with this speech 
he puffed himself up to a very large size. 

“Was that all you had to say to me?” said the duck. 

“No, not all,” said the frog; “I wished to know 
the direction to the nearest town, for I have decided 
to leave this town and travel about a bit in the 
world.” 

“A fine bit of traveling you would do on the shore,” 
said the duck, “with your little short hops and your 
fat stomach.” 

“Oh, I can hop very far,” said the frog, “when I 
try. I once leaped over a tree, and even then did not 
do my best.” 

The frog knew this was untrue as he told it, but he 
wished to make the duck think he was much smarter 
than he really was. 

“Well,” said the duck, “although you can jump 
so far, and are so anxious to travel, I would not advise 
you to attempt in your first day’s journey to go 
farther than Farmer Wilson’s, where I live, for I have 
found that quite a little journey, and I am able to 
walk, and do not have to hop.” 

“All right,” said the frog. “I will see you at Farmer 
Wilson’s to-morrow bright and early, for I shall say 
good-by to this pond at daybreak.” 

“I will watch for you,” said the duck, “and I wish 
you a pleasant journey,” and, calling to her ducklings, 
swam away. 

Next morning at daybreak Billy Bull hopped up 


68 


SANDMAN TALES 


on the shore of the pond, and, taking one last look at 
the familiar waters where he had spent all his life, he 
set out in the direction of Farmer Wilson’s. As he 
hopped along he said to himself: “I wonder what all 
the other frogs will think when I come back and tell 
them the wonderful things that I have seen. They 
certainly will be jealous.” 

The sun was getting up and it was beginning to get 
warm and the road along which he hopped was dry 
and dusty. “We certainly need a rain,” said Billy, 
and he wiped the dust from his eyes and rested for 
a minute in the shade of a tree. “But I mustn’t 
stop here,” he said, “for old Madam Duck is waiting 
for me and I must hurry up and get to Farmer 
Wilson’s.” 

But the farther he traveled the dustier it got and 
the thirstier he became, and he began to wish that he 
could jump into some nice cool water and cleanse and 
refresh himself. 

He was just thinking about how cool and comfort- 
able the frogs he had left in the pond probably were 
when he saw a boy approaching with a long rod in 
his hand, attached to which was a piece of string, 
and on the end of the piece of string was a sharp 
hook. He had seen such things before and had known 
of inquisitive fishes who had swum near the hook 
and, disappearing out of the water, had never been 
heard of again. 

As the boy came up to where the frog was standing, 


BILLY BULL’S LESSON 69 

and saw him, he made a quick dive with his hand, and 
Billy Bull was securely caught. 

“I wonder what he’s going to do with me?” said 
Billy, and as he said it he began to be carried back 
toward the pond faster than he had ever traveled in 
his life; for the boy, anxious to begin fishing, was 
running as fast as he could; and as he ran Billy 
heard him say, “That bullfrog will make fine bait, 
and I ought to get a bite right off.” 

Billy wondered what he meant, but it was not long 
before he found out, for as soon as he reached the 
pond the boy fastened Billy to the hook and threw 
him into the water. He swam for a little way and 
then could swim no further, for the line held him, 
and then the boy raised and lowered the pole and 
Billy had to follow wherever the line drew him. It 
wasn’t very pleasant, and he was glad when he came 
to a log in the water and swam under it. And then 
he felt the line pull again, but not so hard, for it had 
caught on the log. Then he felt the line being yanked 
this way and that, and he struggled, swimming as 
hard as he could, to keep it under the log. And then, 
all at once, he felt something break and he was free, 
although a piece of the line still clung to him. “That 
was certainly a narrow escape,” he said to himself, 
“and I hope I never get caught like that again.” 

“You won’t,” he heard a voice say, “if you stay 
where you belong,” and, looking up, he saw Madam 
Duck in the water just above him. “Many people 


70 


SANDMAN TALES 


are wise in some things and foolish in others,” Madam 
Duck continued, “and, although you were bom with 
the knowledge of swimming, you did not know enough 
to stay in the water. I wasted no time waiting for 
you this morning, for I knew you would never get as 
far as Farmer Wilson’s, and now to make sure that 
you do not leave the pond again I am going to fasten 
you to this lily pad,” and taking the piece of string 
which was attached to Billy, she tied it securely to the 
lily leaf, and some time when you are rowing on a 
lake and see a lily pad moving about it may be the 
one to which Billy Bull, fastened by Madam Duck, 
was taught the lesson that a frog should never get 
very far from the water. 


1 



THE STORY OF THE SILVER BOX 

H ANS and Nella were orphans and lived alone on 
the edge of a forest in a little hut. One night 
when they were eating their supper a knock came on 
the door, and when Hans opened it there stood an 
old man who asked for food and shelter. 

“My sister and I are very poor,” said Hans, “but 
you are welcome and we will share our supper of 
porridge with you and give you a place to sleep; but 
we have only one bed, and, as my sister sleeps in that, 
you will have to sleep upon the floor.” 

“He shall sleep in my bed,” said Nella. “I am 
young and can sleep on the floor better than he 
can.” 

“You are thoughtful of old people,” said the old 
man, “and I pray Heaven to bless you.” He finished 
his supper in silence and then went to bed. 

“He is a queer person,” said Hans; “he spoke but 
once.” 


72 


SANDMAN TALES 


“Perhaps he has traveled a long distance and is 
tired,” said Nella. 

The next morning when Hans and Nella awoke the 
old man had disappeared. When Nella was making 
her bed later in the day her feet struck against some- 
thing, and when she looked under the bed there was 
a silver box. 

“But what can we do with it?” asked Nella. “The 
old man will miss it and come back, so we ought to 
keep it for him.” 

“We’ll bury it,” said Hans, “and if he returns we 
will dig it up.” 

So they took the box to the garden and buried it 
a short distance from the house. 

The next morning when they looked out of the 
window there stood a tree with large leafy branches, 
right over the place where they had buried the box. 

Hans went out and looked at the tree. There was 
a door on one side. He opened it and found himself 
in a long, dark tunnel. He walked quite a distance 
and then he saw a light. It seemed miles away and 
Hans ran toward it. When he reached the place he 
found it was gold shining in the sunlight. He seemed 
to have found a mountain of gold. 

“Oh,” thought Hans, “if I only had a basket I 
could gather gold enough to make Nella and me 
comfortable all our lives. I’ll fill my pockets,” 
he said, for there was gold in small pieces lying all 
around. 


THE STORY OF THE SILVER BOX 


73 


He filled his pockets and was on his way back when 
he met Nella. 

“I went into the. garden to look for you,” she said, 
“and I saw the door in the tree. I was sure you were 
inside, and when I saw how dark it was I was afraid 
something had happened to you.” 

Hans told her of the golden mountain he had seen, 
and Nella wanted to see it. “Oh!” she exclaimed 
when she saw it, “I wish we had a barrel; we could 
be rich!” 

“We could not carry a barrel of gold,” said Hans; 
“put some in your apron. We will have enough 
to get a horse and cart, and then I can get work 
in the village, and that will be better than being 
rich, for rich people are always worrying about their 
wealth.” 

“That is so,” said Nella, putting some of the gold 
in her apron. “ I will only take a little.” They went 
back through the dark tunnel, but when they reached 
the outside they found in place of the little hut they 
had left a pretty, white cottage, with green blinds. 
They went inside and found it was furnished just 
right for two people. 

“Do you think it is for us?” asked Nella. 

“Of course,” said Hans. “There is my cap on the 
peg, and there is your shawl on the chair.” 

“But who could have given it to us?” 

“The fairies, I suppose,” Hans replied. “And now 
I must go to town and buy my horse and cart.” 


74 


SANDMAN TALES 


Nella went to the door with him. “Listen,” she 
said, “the tree is talking.” 

“It is the wind,” said Hans; but they listened and 
it seemed to say, “Bless you, my children; you were 
good to an old man.” 

“Look!” said Nella; “the tree looks like a man 
stretching out his arms. Let us go near it.” 

“The door has disappeared,” said Hans, when they 
were close to the tree. 

“I am glad it has,” said Nella. “I would rather 
have it just a beautiful tree.” 

“So would I,” Hans replied, and the tree seemed 
to fold its long branches lovingly about them. 

“It is the old man come back to guard his box,” 
said Nella, “and he will watch over us also, I am 
sure.” 





THE DISGRACED SUGAR-BOWL 

T HERE was a great commotion in the pantry; 

the sugar-bowl had lost its cover, and there it 
stood on the shelf with uncovered head, looking very 
crestfallen. 

“The very idea,” said the teapot, “of standing 
there all day without your cover! We really cannot 
associate with you unless you find it.” 

“But how can I be blamed for something I did not 
do?” moaned the sugar-bowl. “I had it on when I 
went to sleep last night. I am sure some one stole it. 
Oh dear, I can feel the flies buzzing inside my head. 
Whatever will I do?” 

The teapot turned its nose up a little higher and 
the cream-pitcher looked at the sugar-bowl in a pity- 
ing manner, for the cream-pitcher had never worn a 
cover and had never been in the set with those that 
did, although it always lived near them. 

“You will get used to being uncovered after awhile,” 
6 


76 


SANDMAN TALES 


it said, very timidly, moving a little closer to the sugar- 
bowl, “and the maid will shoo the flies away when 
she puts you on the table.” 

The teapot and the other covered dishes moved 
away in a group by themselves, and the sugar-bowl, 
seeing that the creamer was disposed to be friendly, 
tried to make itself look a little taller and conversed 
in a very condescending manner with it. 

“Yes,” it said, “I suppose I can get used to being 
without my cover, but after wearing one all my life 
it is very hard to be deprived of it now. I cannot see 
how I can bear it, but you seem to get along, and now 
that I notice you, you look well cared for and quite 
as white as any of us.” 

“Why, of course I do,” laughed the creamer. “I 
am washed and polished every day, and I am sure 
you are not more than once a week.” 

The sugar-bowl confessed it was washed and pol- 
ished but once a week. “I had never thought about 
that before,” it said. 

“The teapot holds its nose very high in the air,” 
said the cream-pitcher, “and I know that a great 
many times it is put on the shelf and left overnight 
without being washed and polished. All you covered 
dishes are very haughty because you have covers, but 
you have never noticed that we without covers are 
always smooth and shining, while you very often 
go all day, and sometimes longer, without being 
cleaned.” 


THE DISGRACED SUGAR-BOWL 


77 


The sugar-bowl moved over to where the teapot 
and the covered dishes stood. 

“I do wish you would find your cover,” said the 
teapot. “You look so out of place with us. I saw 
you talking with the cream-pitcher. I suppose you 
feel more at home with the uncovered dishes than 
with us now.” 

The sugar-bowl did not notice the hint and replied: 
“Yes, the cream-pitcher is very polished and smooth, 
and I never before knew that the uncovered dishes are 
really better cared for than we are. Why, the cream- 
pitcher is washed and polished every day, and some- 
times three times, and all the uncovered dishes are 
treated in the same manner. If I get washed and 
polished once a week I feel very lucky.” 

“I am washed and polished once a day,” said the 
teapot, very meekly. 

“I am ’most always,” said the butter-dish, “if the 
maid does not forget me.” 

“I know better than that,” said the sugar-bowl, 
“and so does the cream-pitcher. It just told me that 
the teapot was left nearly always overnight, and I 
know that you go for days sometimes. The uncov- 
ered dishes really should feel themselves above us 
instead of our being so high-headed with our covers.” 

The teapot lowered its nose a little when it heard 
that the cream-pitcher was washed and polished some 
days three times, and the other covered dishes looked 
surprised, and for the first time noticed that the un- 


78 SANDMAN TALES 

covered dishes were even more polished than they 
were. 

“Well, I suppose we might be a little more neigh- 
borly,” said the teapot, for at that very moment it 
was full of yesterday’s tea. 

The maid came in the pantry just then, and when 
she saw the sugar-bowl without its cover she said, 
“For goodness’ sake where is that cover?” and 
brushed away the flies that were in the bowl; then 
she went out, and returned in a minute with the 
cover, which she put on the sugar-bowl, and took the 
teapot with her. 

When she brought it back the cream-pitcher was 
talking with the sugar-bowl. “ I am so glad you have 
your cover again,” it was saying. “You do not look 
natural without it,” and she nodded to the teapot. 
The teapot nodded in return, and soon all the covered 
and uncovered dishes were chatting in the most 
friendly manner. 

Later the sugar-bowl remarked to the teapot: “It 
is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. If I 
hadn’t lost my cover we never should have known 
the uncovered dishes, and now we shall be all one 
family, which is as it should be.” 

“Yes,” said the teapot % “that is true. I had no 
idea they were so polished.” 



THE KING OF THE BARNYARD 

T THINK that the barnyard animals should have a 
* king,” said the donkey; “it would give more dig- 
nity to the yard.” 

“Why do we want a king?” asked the rooster. “I 
am king of my flock.” 

“And I of mine,” said the turkey gobbler. 

“I think we get along very well as we are,” said 
the horse. 

“But I mean a real king,” said the donkey. “One 
who can settle all disputes with superior judgment, 
and can rule in a graceful manner.” 

“I think it would be nice to have a king,” said the 
duck, who was always ready to side with any one. 

“I do not care to be king,” said the dog. 

“Nor I,” said the cat. 

“Nor I, nor I,” came from all sides. 

“Let the donkey be king,” said the duck, wishing 
to please everybody if she could. 


8o 


SANDMAN TALES 


“Yes,” said the cat. “If we must have a king, he 
is the one.” 

“Of course the majority rules,” said the donkey, 
trying not to show his delight at the thought of being 
king. 

“You must have a throne,” said the horse, who was 
very much interested, now that the question was 
settled. 

“Well, I think I should have been queen,” said the 
cow. “I have horns.” 

“Donkey has long ears,” said the cat. 

“But they are not as graceful-looking as my 
horns,” said the cow, with a frown. 

“All are not born to rule,” said the donkey, look- 
ing scornfully at the cow. 

“We can make a throne by placing a keg on this 
soap-box and putting a blanket over it,” said the 
horse; “but you should have a crown.” 

“You might use the water-pail,” said the cow, 
“but his head has grown so large I do not suppose it 
will go over it.” 

“How will this do?” said the duck, waddling tow- 
ard them with the rim of an old straw hat in her bill. 

“The very thing!” said the horse, crowning the 
donkey with it. 

“And now you must have a scepter; here is the 
pitchfork,” he said, handing it to the donkey. “Tines 
up,” he told him. 

Donkey stepped to his throne and took his seat. 


THE KING OF THE BARNYARD 


81 


“You must make a speech,” said the cat. 

“Of course,” said the dog, “and tell us how good 
you intend to be.” 

The donkey arose and said, “My dear subjects — ” 

“Who is he calling subjects?” said the rooster. 

But the donkey did not notice him, and continued, 
“I am very conscious of the honor you have forced 
upon me.” 

“Moo, moo,” said the cow. 

The donkey did not stop; he went on, “I shall 
try to rule in a just and dignified manner, and I hope 
you will be faithful subjects and try to help me.” 

“I wish he would stop using that word subjects,” 
said the rooster as the donkey sat down. 

“I, for one, will not support him,” said the turkey 
gobbler. “I have enough to do now.” 

But the horse said, “Long live the king!” and the 
others took up the words. Donkey smiled and bowed 
as he heard it, and felt that he was a great king. 

But the trouble began when the donkey asked for 
pages to wait on him. 

“ I am not going to wait upon him,” said the rooster. 

“Nor I,” said the pig. 

“Some one must,” said the horse; “ I am too large; 
but who ever heard of a king without attendants?” 

“I should think the dog and cat might,” said the 
donkey; “they get on well together.” 

“What do you want us to do?” asked the cat. 

“You must stay by the throne,” said the donkey, 


82 


SANDMAN TALES 


“and whenever I speak to you you must bow low 
and say ‘Your Majesty,’ and do as I tell you.’’ 

The cat humped up her back. “If you think I am 
going to bow to you,’’ she said, “you can think about 
something else. I shall not bow to any one,” and 
she walked out of the bam. 

“I do not think I care for the page position,” said 
the dog, as he trotted off to his house. 

Soon the poor donkey was all alone in his glory. 
He was a king, but there was no one to rule, so he 
took off his crown and went out into the barnyard, 
but the animals would not notice him and soon he 
found that he was the laughing-stock of the yard. 
He had tried to set himself above them and be king 
and great had been his fall. 



THE MILK-WHITE HORSE 
NE night as the last stroke of twelve sounded a 



V-/ beautiful white horse dashed along a road with- 
out a rider. His bridle was of gilded leather, set with 
jewels, and over his back was a saddle of red velvet 
trimmed with gold. He stopped under a tree and 
looked around, as though he expected some one. 

The tree spread out its branches and swayed back 
and forth, and then disappeared, and in its place 
stood a Prince. He wore a black-velvet suit, and a 
long black feather was in his cap, reaching to his 
shoulder. He patted the horse and sprang to the 
saddle, and the horse trotted along the road till he 
came to the edge of a steep hill. Here he stopped and 
lifted his forefoot. Then he spread his wings, which 
had laid until then close to his sides. Up flew the 
horse and rider, across a valley to a mountain. 

The mountain was sn6w white and very steep, and 
on the top was a house. Now the Prince was an en- 


8 4 


SANDMAN TALES 


chanted Prince and had been told by the fairies to 
rescue a Princess who was held a prisoner in this 
house by three monsters who had stolen her from her 
father and mother. The Prince had tried to reach 
the top of this mountain, but it was so rugged and 
steep that he told the fairies the only way he could 
reach the Princess would be to fly to her. So they 
sent the milk-white horse to carry him. When they 
were near the top of the mountain the horse alighted, 
and the Prince dismounted and patted him and then 
tied him to a tree. 

In one of the rooms in the house on the top of the 
mountain the little Princess sat weeping. She had 
on a beautiful dress, and fragrant flowers were in 
the room. A table was spread before her with all 
sorts of nice things to eat. But this did not make 
her forget the monsters who held her prisoner. Pres- 
ently the door opened and the three monsters came 
in. One had a head like a cow and hands like the 
hoofs, while the body was that of a man. The second 
one looked like a sea lion and walked upright, and the 
third was a huge giant, with a head like a horse. They 
sat at the table and began to eat, and asked the little 
Princess to join them, but she only cried harder and 
moved as far away from them as she could. 

After a while they went out, and the Princess went 
to the table to get some fruit, for she was quite faint. 
She saw' a mouse nibbling at the cake. “You poor 
little thing,” she said, “I will not hurt you,” 


THE MILK-WHITE HORSE 


85 


The mouse sat up and looked at her. “Stop cry- 
ing,” he said, “and eat something, for you have a long 
journey before you.” 

The Princess was so surprised to hear the mouse 
speak that she could not answer for a moment. Then 
she said: “I am not going on any journey. I am a 
prisoner here in the house of the three monsters. 
Have you seen them?” 

“Oh yes,” replied the mouse, “but I am not 
afraid. I am so small they could not catch me. But 
you eat, for I am going to take you home,” and he 
jumped to the floor. “Turn your head,” he said. 
The Princess obeyed. “Now look at me!” And 
when she looked the Prince stood before her. “I 
had to be small,” he said, “to get in here and find 
you, and now that you know I am able to take care 
of you I must be a mouse again.” And in an instant 
he was running over the table. 

It was dark by this time, and the moon was all the 
light they had. “Be at the window at twelve o’clock 
to-night,” said the mouse, “and I will be there and 
take you away with me,” and as he said this he ran 
under the door. 

As the last stroke of twelve sounded there was a 
bright flash and the bars of the window fell away, 
and there was the Prince on the milk-white horse. 
He lifted the Princess to the saddle in front of him. 
But the monsters saw him and rushed toward them, 
looking very ugly. The Prince spread out his arms, 


86 SANDMAN TALES 

and a flash of light spread from him to the monsters 
as he said: 

“ Magic art, now turn to stone 
These grim monsters and their home.” 

The ground heaved and trembled, and the milk- 
white horse spread his wings and rose above it. The 
little Princess looked down, and in the place of the 
mountain and the house were three peaked moun- 
tains. 

The Prince had changed the monsters into rocks, 
so they never again will make any one unhappy. 
The father and mother of the little Princess were so 
glad to have her back that they asked the Prince to 
live with them and marry the Princess. And they all 
lived in the castle, a happy family. 



THE TALKING ANIMALS 

H ULDA and Nathan had heard of a wonderful 
forest where the animals all talked, but they 
did not really believe it until one day they were going 
through the woods and Nathan ran after a squirrel 
and Hulda followed. They would almost catch him, 
and then he would get away. All at once they noticed 
that they were in a part of the woods where they had 
never been before. 

“We’d better go back,” said Hulda; “it will soon 
be dark and we cannot find our way out.” But in- 
stead of finding the path that led out of the forest 
they seemed to go deeper into it, and soon it was dark 
and Hulda began to cry. 

“ Do not be frightened,” said Nathan. “The moon 
will shine to-night and I am sure we can find our 
way out then.” 

“I’m afraid we are lost,” said Hulda, as Nathan 
led her to a seat under a large tree. / 



88 


SANDMAN TALES 


Suddenly they saw a light, and, looking up, they 
saw that it came through a little window in the side 
of the tree, and a voice asked, “Are you children 
lost?” 

An owl put her head out of the window and 
Nathan said, “Can you tell us how to get out of 
the woods?” 

“ It is too far to go to-night,” said the owl. “Come 
in and I will give you some supper.” 

“I know where we are,” said Nathan; “we are in 
the forest of talking animals.” 

The door opened and they walked into a neat 
kitchen. Mrs. Owl had on a large white apron and 
a white cap. She was getting supper. 

“You sit right down at the table,” she said. There 
were bowls and spoons on the table and Mrs. Owl 
filled them with mush and milk. She was so kind 
that Hulda and Nathan soon felt quite at home. “Do 
you want to see my babies?” she asked, when they 
had finished. 

“Yes, indeed,” said Hulda. Mrs. Owl took them 
into the bedroom, and there in a bed were three little 
owls, fast asleep. 

“They are the prettiest birds in the woods,” said 
the proud mother. 

“I do not doubt it,” said Hulda; “they must be 
very cunning when their eyes are opened.” 

The next morning Mrs. Owl gave them their break- 
fast and then Hulda said they must be going, so they 


THE TALKING ANIMALS 89 

said good-by to Mrs. Owl and the babies and thanked 
her for being so kind to them. 

“Here comes Mr. Bruin,” said Mrs. Owl; “he will 
show you the way out of the woods. You need not 
be afraid of him,” she said as she noticed the look of 
alarm on the children’s faces. “No one is ever harmed 
in this forest of talking animals. Good morning, Mr. 
Bruin,” she said. “These children are lost. Will you 
show them the way out of the forest?” 

“Yes, indeed,” said Bruin; “they can come along 
with me. I am going for a long walk and shall be 
glad to have company.” 

Hulda and Nathan walked along with Bruin, who 
was so pleasant and chatty that they soon forgot to 
be afraid. 

“Good morning, Mr. Bruin,” called a blue jay from 
the balcony of her home. “Where are you going?” 

Bruin told her and she said: “Won’t you come in? 
Perhaps the children would like to see my babies.” 

“ We should be pleased to,” said Hulda. 

The blue jay’s house was built in a large tree with 
a balcony on all sides. 

Bruin sat down-stairs and Hulda and Nathan 
followed Mrs. Blue Jay up-stairs. 

“Are they not dears?” she asked, as she showed 
them three little blue jays in a cradle. “They are 
the prettiest birds in the forest.” 

Hulda and Nathan told her they were sure they 
were and that they thought her babies very sweet. 


90 


SANDMAN TALES 


“We must run along,” said Bruin, when they came 
down, and they said good-by to Mrs. Blue Jay and 
went with Bruin. “I live over there,” he said, 
pointing to a rock which looked like a house, “and 
my wife will be very angry if I do not bring you there 
to call.” 

“We should be very glad to go,” said Hulda, and 
soon they found themselves at the door of Bruin’s 
house. Mrs. Bruin came to the door smiling and 
looking very motherly in her cap and apron. 

“Come in,” she said, “and I will give you some 
lunch and show you the children; you will be sure to 
fall in love with them,” she continued, as she and 
Bruin went to fetch them. In a few minutes they 
returned with a little bear under each arm. They 
were put in high chairs and everybody was served 
with mush and milk. The little bears laughed and 
spattered the milk with their spoons, just as Hulda 
and Nathan had seen children do who do not behave 
at the table. 

After lunch they said good-by to Mrs. Bruin and 
the little Bruins, and Hulda did not forget to tell 
Mrs. Bruin that her babies were quite the dearest she 
had seen. 

They walked a long distance without seeing any 
one, and Bruin told them wonderful stories of the 
forest and the talking animals who lived in it, but 
just before they reached the path that led out of the 
woods they met a squirrel and a rabbit. 


THE TALKING ANIMALS 


9i 


“Do come in and have tea,” said the rabbit, “and 
see my babies.” 

“And then you must see mine,” said the squirrel. 

They went with the rabbit first, who lived in a 
white house with green blinds, and all around it grew 
crisp-looking vegetables. Mrs. Rabbit led them into 
a cozy little sitting-room, and while they were drink- 
ing their tea a nurse brought in two baskets and set 
them on the floor. Mrs. Rabbit took off the soft 
covering and showed them the little rabbits. “I can 
assure you,” she said, “they are the prettiest in the 
forest.” Hulda told her she quite agreed with her, as 
they were such dainty little creatures. 

Then they went across the road to Mrs. Squirrel’s, 
who had her babies running around the yard, “be- 
cause,” she told them, “you could not see how grace- 
ful they are if they were in the cradle. They are the 
prettiest babies in the forest.” 

“I am sure you are right,” said Hulda; “they are 
very cunning.” 

They soon came to the path after they left the 
squirrels, and Bruin told them he could not go any 
farther with them, “for if any of the talking animals 
go into that path they lose the power of speech.” 

“We thank you very much,” said Nathan. “We 
have had a most interesting time.” 

“Come again,” said Bruin; “we are always glad 
to have visitors.” And then he went into the woods 
and was soon out of sight. 

7 


92 


SANDMAN TALES 


“I never want to eat any mush and milk again,” 
said Hulda. “They must live on it, and did you ever 
see such conceited mothers; it is most embarrassing 
to have them ask you if their babies are not pretty.” 

“You agreed with each mother,” said Nathan, 
“even with the owl, who had the homeliest little birds 
I ever saw.” 

“Can you tell a mother her baby is not pretty?” 
asked Hulda. 

“No,” said Nathan; “I suppose not.” 

“Well, it is just the same with the animals and 
birds,” said Hulda. 

Nathan and Hulda have looked many times for 
the path that leads to the forest of talking animals, 
but they have not been able to find it, though they 
know there is one, and some day they hope to find it 
again. 



HOW THE GOBLINS WERE OUT-TRICKED 

T HE Fairies and the Goblins, as you know, are not 
always good friends, because the Goblins are a 
little jealous of the power that the Fairies possess, and 
then they are too fond of playing tricks on the little 
Fairies to please these little folk. 

One night the Goblins found out that the Fairies 
were to hold a revel in a dell and they had not 
been invited, so they decided to play a trick on 
the Fairies and frighten them for not sending them 
an invitation. 

In this dell grew many flowers, and that was one 
reason the Fairies selected this place, where there were 
little bushes of flowers and ferns and all sorts of 
flowers, and when the Goblins looked about, trying to 
think of something they could do to frighten the 
Fairies, one of them said, “The flowers will be the 
very things to hide under.” 


94 


SANDMAN TALES 


“What good will that do if we hide?” asked another 
Goblin. “We want them to see us.” 

“No, we don’t,” said another. “What we want to 
do is to hide, and then frighten them, but how will 
we frighten them? That is the question.” 

“I can tell you,” said one Goblin. “We can hide 
under the flowers, and when the Fairies come they will 
be sure to alight on a flower. They always do if there 
are any. Then all we have to do is jump up and 
carry them off to some dark place before they can 
call their fireflies. It is moonlight and the fireflies 
will not be with them. They are having a picnic all 
by themselves in a dark marsh far away from here.” 

The Goblins agreed that this last plan was a good 
one, so that night they went into the dell and hid 
themselves under the flowers. 

By and by the Fairies came flying into the dell and, 
just as the Goblin said, they alighted on the flowers 
and began to sing. 

Hardly had they done so when up jumped the 
naughty Goblins, each with a Fairy on his shoulders, 
and off they scampered. 

But they were not quick enough for the little 
Fairies, and before they reached a dark spot the Fairy 
Queen called on the Fairies to touch the Goblins with 
their wands. 

The Queen was sitting in her little carriage, and 
when the Goblins jumped up she saw what happened 
and decided quickly what was to be done. 


HOW THE GOBLINS WERE OUT-TRICKED 95 

The Goblins, of course, had not counted on this, and 
the first thing they knew, or rather, the first thing 
they felt, was a sting from the wands and then all 
was dark. 

The Goblins were turned, to stone and all over the 
dell in the place of the pretty flowers were small rocks. 

“That was a very narrow escape for you, my 
dears,” said the Queen when the Fairies had gathered 
around her. “Those tricky little Goblins were out- 
tricked this time. They had not counted on me to 
be here and tell you what to do.” 

Away flew the Fairies and left the stones because it 
was getting almost time for the sun to rise, and when 
he came up he was surprised to see the rocks instead 
of the pretty flowers with their upturned faces to 
greet him. 

He looked and he smiled, thinking the flowers 
must be hiding under the rocks, but his warmest smile 
failed to bring forth the flowers, and when night came 
the sun was very sad and he sank from sight very 
slowly, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Fairies and 
beg them to help him find his flowers. 

Just as his head disappeared he saw the moon and 
a thought came to Mr. Sun. “I’ll send a message to 
Mr. Moon,” he thought, “by one of the stars.” 

So he called very softly to a star not far away and 
asked it to tell the moon about all the rocks in the 
dell and ask him to please get his friends, the Fairies, 
to look for his flowers. The little star said it would 


96 


SANDMAN TALES 


take the message, and that night when the moon 
came out the star told Mr. Moon what Mr. Sun asked. 

The face of the old man broadened with a smile, 
and then he laughed. “You can tell Mr. Sun that his 
flowers were destroyed by the Goblins,” he said. 
“Those naughty fellows tried to play a trick on my 
little Fairies, and they were the victims. But I will 
see what I can do when the Fairies come out to-night, 
because I do not like to see all those rocks any 
better than Mr. Sun, and I think the Fairies will think 
the Goblins have been punished enough by to-night.” 

So when the Fairies came into the dell that night 
the Moon Man sent a moonbeam to ask the Queen 
to pay him a call. 

The Queen said she would, and the moonbeam 
made a path for her carriage straight up to the old 
Moon Man. 

When the Moon Man told the Queen the request 
the sun had made she did not reply, but when the 
Moon Man said, “I wish also that you would bring 
back the flowers; they were not to blame because the 
naughty Goblins used them to hide under,” then she 
said she would think it over. 

The Queen drove back to her Fairies and found 
them all huddled together, looking forlorn and un- 
happy. 

“We miss our flowers,” said one, “and these rocks 
look so cold and black in the moonlight I almost wish 
we had not turned the Goblins to stone.” 


HOW THE GOBLINS WERE OUT-TRICKED 97 

“We will change them to their natural shape again, 
if you feel that way,” said the Queen. “The Moon 
Man sent for me and asked me to do so. He does not 
like the rocks any better than we do. And the Sun 
Man misses the flowers. He sent word to us to-night 
to try and find them. Of course he did not know 
what had happened.” 

“Perhaps if we send a message to him and tell him 
how the Goblins bother us he will tell them they must 
change their wicked ways,” said a Fairy. 

“Oh, do give us our flowers again 1 ” cried all the 
Fairies, dancing around their Queen. 

“I think the Goblins have been punished enough 
for this time,” said the Queen, “and I will give them 
their forms again and let the flowers come back.” 

Each little Fairy flew to a rock and touched it with 
her wand, and up jumped a Goblin, who looked 
around and rubbed his eyes. 

Then they remembered what had happened, and 
off they ran to their rocks, and into them, tumbling 
over one another in their haste. 

The Fairies had their revel that night without any 
trouble, and when the sun looked into the dell the 
next morning there were his flowers looking up to greet 
him. 



GRAY HEN’S STRATEGY 

“WES,” said Brown Hen, Cnicken Young is the 

I sauciest chicken I have ever known.” 

“He has been from under his mother’s wing so long,” 
said White Hen, “that she has not the least control 
over him; in fact,” she concluded, “he does not 
hesitate to snatch a worm from her the same as he 
does from me.” 

“What he needs is a good lesson,” said Gray Hen. 
“We stand around and let him do as he likes. I 
notice he never takes a worm from the rooster.” 

The trouble was this, when Chicken Young saw a 
hen scratching for worms he would watch to see if it 
was a nice large one, and just as the hen held it dan- 
gling from her bill he would come up behind her, 
snatch it, and run away as fast as he could. 

Then he would go under a bush or any place that 
offered shelter and devour it. Chicken Young did 


GRAY HEN’S STRATEGY 


99 


very little scratching for himself; he lived by his 
wits rather than by labor. 

The hens were tired of his treatment, and called a 
meeting to decide what should be done to cure 
Chicken Young of this unfortunate habit. 

They stood in a comer of the yard, talking it over. 
Chicken Young was watching them from his hiding- 
place under a bush. He could not hear what they 
said, but he felt sure they were talking about him. 

“Let them talk,” he said. “I can run faster than 
any of them, and that is what counts, and what is 
the use of scratching when those old hens know just 
where all the fat worms are? They ought to give me 
one once in a while.” 

But Chicken Young would have been wiser if he 
had listened to what the wise old hens were saying, 
instead of thinking he was so clever himself, for 
Gray Hen had thought of a plan to teach him a lesson. 

“If we can get an end of the clothes-line,” she said, 
“just about the length of a worm, we can bury it in 
the ground, and when Chicken Young is watching 
one of us can scratch and pick up the rope. He will 
jump at it, of course, because it would look so nice 
and plump; then we will laugh at him and ask him 
how he likes a rope worm.” 

“The very thing,” said White Hen. “Here comes 
the dog. We will ask him to bite us off a piece of the 
clothes-line.” 

The dog thought it would be a good joke, and he 


IOO 


SANDMAN TALES 


soon had the rope for them, and when Chicken Young 
went down to the road for a walk they buried the 
rope. 

A little later when he came in the yard Gray Hen 
was busy scratching.' “She always finds a fat worm,” 
said Chicken Young, stealing up behind her, 
and his eyes nearly popped out of his little head 
when he saw what he thought was the largest worm 
he had ever seen dangling from her bill. 

Quick as a flash he snatched it from Gray Hen, 
and then, thinking she might run after him because 
it was an extra-large worm, he swallowed it. The 
rope scraped his throat and choked him, and he 
jumped about and flapped his wings, stretching his 
neck, his mouth wide open, and gasping for breath. 

The hens had not expected him to swallow it, and 
they rushed out from all sides, looking very much 
frightened. 

“Slap him on the back," said Gray Hen. “It has 
stuck in his throat.” 

“Shake him by the feet,” said another,- and after 
a vigorous slapping and pounding the piece of rope 
slipped down his throat and Chicken Young sank 
upon the ground exhausted. 

“I guess you will be a little more careful next time,” 
said Gray Hen, “and look before you leap.” 

“Stolen fruits are not always the sweetest,” said 
White Hen. “Perhaps you will scratch for yourself 
next time.” 


GRAY HEN’S STRATEGY 


IOI 


Chicken Young did not reply to these remarks, 
but lay very quiet with open mouth. 

“He is young,” said Gray Hen, “and has learned a 
lesson, I am sure. Let us take him to the pan of water 
and give him a drink; that is what he needs.” 

Gray Hen helped on one side and White Hen on 
the other, and they stood Chicken Young on his feet. 
After he had drunk the water he flapped his wings 
and stepped about, feeling quite like himself. 

“You are all right now,” said Gray Hen. “Run 
around and stretch your legs.” 

Chicken Young walked away with a crestfallen 
air and in a few minutes they saw him scratching in 
a comer of the yard 

“I had no idea he would swallow it,” said Gray 
Hen. 

“Nor I,” said White Hen; “but he will not forget 
it soon, and it is just as well that he got a good scare.” 



THE JUMPING-JACK 
LITTLE wooden Jumping Jack hung m a shop 



Ai window; a string was tied around his neck and 
his arms and legs hung quite limp, but if you had 
pulled the string that was just at the end of his spine 
you would soon have discovered that he was not so 
meek as he looked. 

Now this is exactly what Jack wished would happen, 
for in the center of the window, facing him, was a lady 
doll who wore the most bewitching little poke bonnet, 
and from under it Jack could see a pair of bright eyes, 
but they seemed never to look at him. 

If only some one would pull the string that moved 
his legs and arms, he knew he not only would attract 
her attention, but he would jump and perform as 
never before, and he was sure he could win her 
admiration. 

On her bonnet were the tiniest rosebuds, and Jack 
had named her, in his little wooden heart, Rose. 


THE JUMPING-JACK 


103 


Rose wore a dress of pink silk, and on her arm she 
carried a box filled with pins; this he had learned 
from a parrot that sat on a swing near him. 

“But she will never notice you,” the parrot had 
told him when he caught Jack looking at Rose one 
day with loving looks; “she is very proud, and she 
says she is French, whatever that is,” said the parrot. 

But no one pulled the string and Jack had no 
opportunity of displaying his agility and testing 
Rose’s regard for him, and there came a day when 
the shopkeeper took Rose from the window and 
wrapped her in a piece of paper, and she was carried 
away by a pretty lady. 

Poor Jack hung more limp than ever, and he 
thought his little wooden heart was broken, but the 
parrot told him to cheer up, “there are plenty more 
dolls in the world, and those more suitable for you 
to love than that French creature.” 

But Jack did not think so, and while he tried to 
look as though he had forgotten Rose he dreamed of 
her at night, and in the daytime he looked toward 
the place where she had sat, with a sad heart. 

And then something happened. A lady with a 
little boy came into the shop and bought Jumping 
Jack. 

He was carried to a big house and put in a room 
with many other toys. There were many animals 
and a Teddy bear, but not a doll was to be seen, and 
although Jack jumped high and fast at first, after a 


104 


SANDMAN TALES 


while he grew tired and wished for the window again 
and the parrot, to whom he could talk of Rose. 

“If there was a doll of any sort here,” thought 
Jack, “it would be better than this, for I am sure I 

was made to be loved, and I want some one to admire 
>> 

me. 

One day the little boy took Jack out of the room 
and down-stairs. He went to the door of a room and 
looked in. “There isn’t ariy one here,” he told Jack. 
“Muwer is out, and we’ll go in and look out her 
window. There is a little girl in the window opposite, 
and she will laugh when I make you jump for her.” 

The little boy knocked on the window and the 
little girl looked at him and laughed, and when he 
made Jack jump and kick she danced up and down 
with delight. 

Suddenly Jack saw something that made his little 
wooden heart jump, as well as his legs and arms, and 
then it seemed to stand still, for on the dressing-table 
stood Rose, and from under the little bonnet she was 
looking at him with admiration as he jumped about. 

And didn’t he jump ! The little boy thought he was 
making Jack do all sorts of tricks, but it was Jack 
himself who did more capers than he ever had done 
in all his life. 

By and by a nurse took the little girl away, and the 
little boy grew tired of Jack and went out of the 
room, leaving Jack on the window-sill, dangerously 
near the edge. 


THE JUMPING-JACK 


105 

Soon a heavy team passing jarred the house, and 
off he went, sliding down the wall and landing on the 
floor on his side, with his back resting against the 
wall. And there was Rose right in the room, and he 
couldn’t see her. “If some one would only put me 
up on the table beside her,” thought Jack. 

“What is that?” he said to himself, as something 
came toward him and quick as a flash ran up the 
table-leg. In a second the cat came in and jumped 
to the top of the table. 

There was a rattling of silver and something fell 
beside Jack. He saw the cat run out with something 
in her mouth, and then he looked to see what had 
fallen, and right beside him was Rose with her bright 
eyes looking into his and her little red mouth close 
beside his face. 

Jack thought he must be dreaming as she asked 
in a very low voice, “Have I not seen you somewhere 
before?” 

And then Jack told her how he had always loved 
her even in the old days in the shop window, and that 
it almost broke his little wooden heart when she went 
away. And while Rose had always thought she would 
like a sailor boy for her husband, she knew sailors 
were fickle, and she was wise enough to know also that 
Jack loved her with all the honest love of his little 
wooden heart; and such love was not to be despised, 
so she smiled and Jack knew he at last had won the 
little French doll’s heart. 



THE BARN DANCE 


F course all you little folk wno have been to 



V-/ dancing-school know of the barn dance, but 
perhaps not all of you have ever heard where and how 
the first barn dance was given. 

One night the farm animals gave a party and 
thought the bam the best place for them to dance. 
For a week before every one was talking about it. 
The music was to be furnished by the cat, who played 
the fiddle, and the dog said he could play the drum, 
and the goat was to play the flute. The orchestra 
was to be in the hay-loft, so that the floor could be 
given to the dancers, as some of them had very large 
feet and needed a great deal of room. 

Madam Duck came waddling in early, so that she 
could get a good seat. She did not dance, her feet 
were so large, but she intended to see all the cos- 


THE BARN DANCE 


107 


tumes. She seated herself comfortably in a tub of 
water. 

In a few minutes Mrs. Gray Tabby and her three 
daughters came in the door. The kittens frisked 
about and shook out their tails. 

“Good evening, Mrs. Tabby,” said the duck; “you 
have brought your daughters, I see. Will they dance ? ’ ’ 

“I shall see who is here first,” said the careful Mrs. 
Tabby, and the kittens giggled behind her back. 

The orchestra had arrived and were tuning their 
instruments. The horse poked his nose out of his 
stall and pricked up his ears; he was looking for a 
partner. 

“There is Miss Pig,” he said; “I’ll ask her to go 
in the grand march with me.” 

So he trotted over to her. 

“Miss Pig, will you lead the march with me?” he 
asked. The pig was delighted to be chosen by so fine 
a looking animal as the horse, and made her prettiest 
bow. The cow thought she should have been asked, 
and looked very angry, but a big dog bowed before 
her, and she smilingly took his arm. A calf and a 
sheep followed, and a cat and small dog joined. 

Just then a loud braying was heard, and the donkey 
stood in the doorway. 

“Well, of all things!” he said. “Why didn’t you 
wait for me? I should have led this march. I would 
like to know whom I can have for a partner. I need 
some one tall and stately-looking.” 

8 


io8 


SANDMAN TALES 


“Take the goose,” said the dog. “You two will 
look well together.” 

So the donkey, smiling very sweetly, bowed to 
Miss Goose, who turned her head aside and blushed. 

The gobbler and a very sedate-looking turkey came 
in just then and followed the donkey and goose. 
Then a goat came prancing along and bowed to one 
of Mrs. Tabby’s daughters. The kittens began to 
giggle again and hid their faces behind their fans. 

“May I have the honor of having one of your 
charming daughters for a partner?” he asked, and 
Mrs. Tabby gave him one of her daughters, whereat 
the other two rolled over and over and giggled 
again. 

White Rooster came in with the brown hen. He 
looked very much .disgusted when he saw the horse 
leading the march, but he took his place behind the 
goat and kitten and stepped very high. 

The duck all this time was telling Mrs. Tabby what 
she thought of the guests: “Just look at this silly 
Miss Pig. She has done nothing but smile ever since 
the horse spoke to her. He is very likely telling her 
how graceful she is, and she is silly enough to believe 
it. And just look at Miss Mooly. The idea of that 
clumsy creature dancing ! She is old enough to know 
better. Look, she stepped on the pig’s tail. 

“And look at the donkey and that silly goose. Did 
you ever see such marching? They are out of step 
all the time. Really, Mrs. Tabby, your daughter is 


THE BARN DANCE 


109 

the belle of this dance. It is too bad she has not a 
better-looking partner.” 

“He seems to be as good-looking as any one here,” 
said Mrs. Tabby, rather sharply, “and he certainly is 
graceful.” 

“There, they are forming for a quadrille,” said the 
duck. 

The dog who played the fiddle was prompter, and 
when he called, “Eight hands around,” Miss Mooly 
caught her toe in a loose board, and down she went, 
the others falling on top of her. 

“Just look at that,” said the duck, flopping out 
of the tub. “Isn’t she the clumsiest thing?” But 
order was quickly restored and the dance went on. 

Presently a clatter was heard and the goat who 
played the flute was in the center of the floor, dancing 
a hornpipe, and, in spite of his whiskers, showed he 
had not lost his youthful ways. The donkey wanted 
to dance the sword dance, but there was no sword to 
be found. Some one suggested the use of a sickle, but 
the donkey would not dance with anything but 
swords, so they all waltzed. 

Old Hen, who had a brood of chickens in one of 
the empty mangers* put her head out, and said she 
never heard such goings-on, her children could not 
sleep for the noise, and told them it was time decent 
animals were in bed. Just then the duck saw the 
guinea-hen. 

“If she isn’t here in that old polka-dot dress,” she 


no 


SANDMAN TALES 


said; “she has worn it ever since I can remember.” 
And she looked over her glasses at poor Miss Guinea 
in the most disgusted way. 

But some one stood in the doorway, and all eyes 
were upon him. The peacock had come late, and his 
tail was spread to the full breadth. He slowly ad- 
vanced with measured steps, looking straight ahead. 
The music ceased and the dancers moved to either 
side of the bam. The peacock marched through. 
Even the duck was speechless with admiration, and 
the kittens forgot to giggle. He did not turn his head 
to light or left, but walked out of the barn through 
the opposite door and disappeared into the night. 

The grandeur of his appearance and the dignity of 
his carriage quite overcame the others, and no one 
cared to appear upon the floor again. Mrs. Tabby 
gathered her daughters about her and said, “Good 
night,” and two by two the animals left the barn. 
But Madam Duck waited until the last one had 
gone. “ I just wanted to see if that old flirt of a horse 
would go home with Miss Pig,” she said to the guinea- 
hen, “after acting so foolish all the evening.” 

“He did,” said the guinea. “I saw them go out.” 

“I suppose he saw me watching him,” said the 
duck, “and he knows what I think of him. Too bad 
you did not have a partner, Miss Guinea,” she said 
as she turned to go. 

“Oh, I did not mind,” said the guinea. “I was 
there to look on just as you were.” 



THE LOST STAR 



NCE upon a time a little star that had been shin- 


ing for hundreds of years became tired of shining 
every night and wanted to go down upon the earth 
and see what was going on there. 

“I wonder what there is away down there where 
we cannot see,” it said one night to a brother star that 
had been shining beside it for hundreds of years, also. 

“I do not know, and I cannot understand why 
you should care when we are happy up here and have 
only to shine every night,” replied the brother star. 

“But I am not happy,” said the little star. “I am 
unhappy because I want to see what there is beneath 
us, and I cannot from here. I wonder what would 
happen if I were to drop from here — would I keep on 
going and never stop, or would I find a place much 
better than this down below?” 

“I have never thought about any other place but 
this,” replied the brother star, “but if we were in- 


1 12 


SANDMAN TALES 


tended to live in another place than this we should 
have been put there. I would not think about it any 
more, and be happy here where all of us shine every 
night.” 

The old moon had been listening to all that the 
little star said, and when both had finished speaking 
he said: “You better stay where you are and not go 
down upon the earth, for while it is a good place for 
people to live, it is not a good place for little stars. 
Why, you would be lost the minute you landed there, 
and no one would know where you belonged. You 
better stay here with your brothers and keep on 
shining.” 

But the little star kept on thinking about the big 
space below it, and one night when everything was 
quiet and the wind was sleeping the little star saw a 
nice, fleecy cloud floating right toward the old moon. 

“Now is my time,” it said to itself. “That cloud 
will soon cover the old moon’s face and he will not 
see me. 

“I will just drop out of the sky and shoot down to 
the earth, and if I do not like being there I have no 
doubt but I can get back again.” 

So the foolish little star slipped out of its niche in 
the sky and down, down it went to the earth. 

“A shooting star,” some one said, and then the 
foolish little star found itself in a big field of daisies 
and rested on the green grass, where it could not see 
a thing. 


THE LOST STAR 


113 

A big beetle crawled up to it and asked, ‘‘Where 
did you come from?” 

“I am a star come to visit your earth,” was the 
reply. 

‘‘Oh, come here,” called the beetle to another, 
‘‘here’s a star come down to earth.” 

“That is not a star,” said the second beetle; “stars 
are bright and shine; this is only a piece of stone.” 

“But I am a star,” declared the little star, “and I 
have been shining for hundreds of years up in the 
sky. I came down to visit the earth because I wanted 
to see what was here.” 

“You will have to tell that to some one who does 
not know as much as we do,” replied the beetles, and 
off they went, leaving the poor little star wondering if 
the earth was worth a visit, after all. 

By and by the daisies heard a sound of crying, and 
they bent their heads and listened. 

“It comes from down deep in the grass,” said one. 
“We must look and find who is unhappy.” 

“Oh, please tell me how to get to my home again !” 
cried the little star when it saw the daisies looking 
for it. 

“Where did you come from?” they asked. 

“ I am a star, and I live away up above this earth,” 
said the little star. “ I have been shining up there for 
hundreds of years, and I wanted to see the earth, so 
I just dropped down, and now I cannot find my way 
back.” 


SANDMAN TALES 


1x4 

“You are a star?” said the daisies. “You do not 
look like one, but I suppose you are what is called a 
shooting star, and you have lost your brightness. 

“I am afraid we cannot help you to get back to 
your home; none of us know the way.” 

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” cried the little star. “I 
cannot see anything down here. I thought your 
earth was a big place and there would be much to 
see.” 

“There is much to see, and it is a big, beautiful 
world, too,” replied the daisies. “But you are on the 
ground, under the grass, and cannot see its beauty. 
You see, you do not belong here and cannot appreciate 
the earth as we do.” 

“I want to go home,” moaned the little star; “it 
is all dark here and I cannot see. Will no one show 
me the way home?” 

“Do you suppose the moon would know where this 
lost star’s home is?” asked one daisy. 

“Where is he? Where is he?” cried the little 
star. “Old Mr. Moon will surely know the way 
home.” 

“He is not here just now,” said the daisies, “but 
when the cloud in front of him has passed we will see 
if he can help you.” 

In a few minutes the moon was shining on the field 
of daisies, and it reached the spot where the little star 
was. 

“Mr. Moon,” cried all the daisies at once, “there 


THE LOST STAR 


US 

is a lost star down here. Can you show it the way 
home?” 

But before the daisies had finished their question 
the little star had seen the moon-beam, and it lifted 
to face and cried out for joy. 

“I can see! I can see!” it said. “ This is the path 
that will take me to my home.” 

“If the daisies really wish me to help you find your 
home, I will,” replied the moon, “but you deserve to 
be lost because you left your brothers and the home 
where you have lived so long without a regret.” 

“Oh, yes, Mr. Moon, please help the little star to 
get back to its home and shine again,” said the daisies. 
“ It will never shoot out of its place again, I am sure.” 

“No, I never will leave my place beside my brothers 
if you will take me home, Mr. Moon, I promise you,” 
said the little star, “no matter how many hundred 
years more I have to shine.” 

“Very well,” replied the moon, “then I will show 
you how to get home, but it will take a long time to 
get back your brightness and you will have to be put 
a long way from your brothers where you have lived 
so long.” 

By the bright rays of the moon the little star 
climbed back to the sky, but when it passed its brother 
stars it hung its head in shame, for they were weeping 
because it had left them and would never shine be- 
side them any more. 

The little star had left its brothers without a 


n6 


SANDMAN TALES 


thought of them, but only thinking of what it would 
see on earth. 

Far away from its brothers it found a place where 
it must shine for a hundred years before it can ever 
be as bright as it was when it left its place to visit 
the earth. 

And when it regains its former brightness its 
brothers will have gained in brightness, and so be lost 
to the little star forever. Poor little lost star ! 


THE END 


BOOKS BY 

KATE DICKINSON 
SWEETSER 


TEN BOYS FROM DICKENS 

TEN GIRLS FROM DICKENS 

TEN BOYS FROM HISTORY 

TEN GIRLS FROM HISTORY 

BOYS AND GIRLS FROM GEORGE ELIOT 

BOYS AND GIRLS FROM THACKERAY 

BOOK OF INDIAN BRAVES 

TEN GREAT ADVENTURERS 

“Particularly spirited is Miss Sweetser’s biograph- 
ical work. Accuracy of historic fact has been the 
author’s commendable aim in all her books. Luck- 
ily she has likewise treated her characters as human 
beings, something which cannot be said of most 
writers of biography for children.” — The Nation. 

Octavo, Pictorial Covers, numerous full-page illus- 
trations, many in color 


HARPER & BROTHERS 
NEW YORK Established 1817 LONDON 



FAMOUS BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY 

LOUIS RHEAD 


THE ARABIAN NIGHTS 
TREASURE ISLAND 
GULLIVER! S TRAVELS 
TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS 
HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES 
SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON 
ROBIN HOOD 
ROBINSON CRUSOE 

All these volumes are fully illustrated with nu- 
merous full -page drawings and many 
decorations. Crown 8vo, 
bound in Red 
Cloth 


HARPER & BROTHERS 
NEW YORK Established 1817 LONDON 



HARPER’S 

PRACTICAL BOOKS 


HARPER'S BOOK FOR YOUNG GARDENERS 
HARPER'S INDOOR BOOKS FOR BOYS 
HARPER'S OUTDOOR BOOK FOR BOYS 
HARPER'S CAMPING AND SCOUTING 
HARPER'S BOATING BOOK FOR BOYS 
HARPER'S ELECTRICITY BOOK FOR BOYS 
HARPER'S BOOK FOR YOUNG NA TURALIS TS 

HARPER'S HOW TO UNDERSTAND ELEC- 
TRICAL WORK 

HARPER'S MACHINERY BOOK FOR BOYS 
HARPER'S HANDY-BOOK FOR GIRLS 
THE STORY OF OUR GREAT INVENTIONS 
MOTOR-BOATING FOR BOYS 

Each Volume Fully Illustrated. Crown 8vo 


HARPER & BROTHERS 
NEW YORK Established 1817 LONDON 



HARPER’S 
CAMP LIFE SERIES 


CAMPING ON THE GREAT RIVER 
By Raymond S. Spears 
A farmer's son ventures out into the great world to 
make a man of himself and succeeds . He embarks in 
a shanty-boat and sails down the Ohio and Mississippi , 
where he has all kinds of adventures which will make 
the boy-reader long to imitate him . 

CAMPING ON THE GREAT LAKES 
By Raymond S. Spears 
A story of self-reliance and independence as well 
as adventure. Will Sayne and Miles Breton take 
a voyage of discovery from Ontario and Erie , through 
Huron to the vast stretch of Lake Superior. They be- 
come involved innocently in smugglers' plots: 

CAMPING IN THE WINTER WOODS 
By Elmer Russell Gregor 
The story of two boys who are granted the privilege 
of a winter of hunting and trapping in the Maine 
woods under the tuition of their father s famous guide , 
Old Ben. It is not only a fine story but is filled with 
the information about wild animals and woodcraft that 
boys love. 

CAMPING ON WESTERN TRAILS 
By Elmer Russell Gregor 
The same two boys spend a summer in the Rocky 
Mountains , shoot mountain-lions and wolves, secure 
photographs of mountain-sheep and bears , pan gold in 
canon streams, and are nearly suffocated in a forest fire. 

Illustrated. Post 8vo 


HARPER & BROTHERS 
NEW YORK Established 1817 LONDON 














































































































































4 


i 
























■ 











































































V 

« 



















